PrEP may be free now, but who can access it?
Soon after Nagata Prescott began dating an HIV-positive man, he received a rare offer. He could take a drug that would prevent him from contracting the virus – for free.
This was two months before the BC government agreed to pay for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug that effectively protects people from getting HIV.
Prescott was invited to join a targeted PrEP program. Run by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, it aimed to track HIV outbreaks, and offered PrEP free to everyone near an epicentre.
At first, the 24-year-old gay man living in Kelowna, BC, hesitated. After all, his boyfriend had an undetectable viral load; he knew he couldn’t contract the virus from him. But when Prescott realized how few young gay people in his part of the province knew about PrEP, he decided to take it anyway. He wanted a conversation starter.
Among queer youth in Kelowna, BC’s largest city outside Metro Vancouver, Prescott says there’s little chance to learn anything about PrEP.