1288. Adolescents’ Knowledge and Acceptance of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the Capital District Region of New York

Background In 2015, adolescents 13–24 years were disproportionately affected and accounted for 22% of new HIV infections in the United States. In New York State (NYS), the rate of adolescents (13–19 years) living with HIV infection is more than twice the national rate (44.4 vs. 19.4 per 100,000 population). As part of the ending the epidemic (ETE) program, the NYS Department of Health spearheaded access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk individuals to keep them HIV negative. This study aims to test the hypothesis that adolescents at risk may not be utilizing PrEP and that there are barriers to adopting it.