In 4 Gay Men Should Be Taking PrEP

Enter PrEP, or Preexposure Prophylaxis, a daily pill the CDC says can prevent HIV.

Analysis suggests that about 25% of men who have sex with men and 20% of those who use nonprescription injection drugs would benefit from so-called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the agency said in a Vital Signs report published online in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

When taken daily, PrEP can reduce the risk of HIV infection through sexual contact by more than 90 percent; for people who inject drugs it can reduce infection by 70 percent.

However, among teenagers aged 15-19, 26 new infections occur every hour, and about half of the two million living with HIV in this group are in just six countries: India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The medication was approved by the FDA in 2012.

The number of new HIV diagnoses declined from 43,862 in 2010 to 39,877 in 2014, according to the CDC. It’s even more effective if used in combination with condoms. They list the drug. condoms and disease screening among tactics to prevent and halt the spread of HIV.

“People who can benefit from PrEP aren’t taking it”.

Although relatively few patients have serious side effects from PrEP, the pills can cause kidney and bone damage, Sax said.

Labor accepts the need for proper processes to ensure Australia’s health system is both safe and secure, but we will be closely watching this process to ensure that should the experts recommend it, the Turnbull Government acts swiftly to ensure PrEP is made available on Australia’s PBS. If you take PrEP and are exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use, these medicines can work to keep the virus from taking hold in your body.

“Many people who can benefit from PrEP aren’t taking it”, the authors of the report write. Medicaid and most private insurance policies will cover the roughly $10,000 annual prescription, CDC officials said. In fact, 34 percent of primary care doctors and nurses had never heard of PrEP in 2015. Nevertheless, the Centers For Disease Control recently announced that 1 in 4 HIV negative gay men ought to be on the drug. “Reducing the toll of HIV in this nation will require matching the right tools to the right people”, said Eugene McCray, M.D., director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. She urged “collaborative action from clinicians, medical and professional associations and groups that implement HIV-prevention efforts”.

What’s worse, the CDC estimates that more than 50 percent of youth who are HIV-positive don’t know they have the virus, making it more likely they’ll inadvertently transmit the disease.