CDC calls for increased PrEP awareness for high-risk patients

“It is critical that young people who are HIV-positive have access to treatment, care and support”, said Craig McClure, head of UNICEF’s global HIV/AIDS programmes, at the Critical Thinking Forum in Johannesburg today.

To encourage health care practitioners to make PrEP counseling part of routine wellness care for certain patient populations, the CDC on Tuesday also published clinical guidelines and a “step-by-step” PrEP checklist and guide for discussing the drug with patients.

In February this year, drug company Gilead began what is expected to be a 12-month process with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), to license Truvada for use as PrEP in Australia. Given lifestyle factors and risky behavior, such as unprotected sex with multiple partners, and using unsafe and unsterile needles, they are the most vulnerable.

By comparison, heterosexual sex still exceeds gay sex as a major transmission route among males and females of the same age group. PrEP is even more effective if it is combined with other ways to prevent new HIV infections like condom use, drug abuse treatment, and treatment for people living with HIV to reduce the chance of passing the virus to others.

“PrEP has the potential to dramatically reduce new HIV infections in the nation”. A new Vital Signs report identifies the high risk categories for HIV infection.

On the other hand, a concerted effort to raise awareness of the option in NY state – involving medical associations, advocacy groups, state and local health departments, and healthcare providers – was associated with a sharp increase in the number of Medicaid enrollees who took advantage of PrEP, according to a companion study in MMWR.

A pill called Truvada is said to prevent HIV infections nearly completely according to federal health officials, though a vast majority of doctors and nurses are unaware of this. Prescriptions climbed from 303 from July 2013 to June 2014 to 1,330 from July 2014 to June 2015.

Medication can prevent infection with the virus in people at high risk. The CDC has also set up a hotline to provide information to physicians who plan to counsel patients on the drug.

“Clinicians are operating within a highly complex HIV prevention landscape”, Jonathan H. Mermin, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention, said during the conference.

“We have this sea change in HIV prevention, but it is one of the best-kept secrets in medicine”, said J.D. Davids, managing editor at TheBody.com, an online resource on HIV and AIDS.