Objective:

To describe the profile of people who initiated HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in a public health service, evaluating the use of this technology by key populations as recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

Methods:

This was a retrospective longitudinal study using secondary data on service users receiving care between 2015-2018. Absolute and relative frequencies were calculated and Pearson's chi-square test was used to compare behavioral characteristics.

Results:

Of the 270 people evaluated, there was a higher frequency of young adults (45.4%), males (74.7%), people of white race/skin color (76.3%), with a high level of education (65.7%) and with multiple sex partners (40.7%). Among the key populations, there was a higher frequency of people who use alcohol and/or other drugs (49.6%) and men who have sex with men (38.1%), while transgender people (2.2%) and sex workers (4.8%) used PEP less.

Conclusion:

The use of PEP was not homogeneous among the vulnerable groups evaluated, with low frequency of transgender people and sex workers.

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