We have the pills, the prevention plan and the strategy to prevent infections – so what’s stopping us?
I was on PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), the daily anti-HIV pill, for about a year and a half before I had to stop because I lost my private health insurance. My lack of access made me feel much less protected.
In 2014, there were an estimated 2,570 new HIV diagnoses in Canada and 44,073 in the United States – and it’s still a very real problem. But between PrEP and using HIV treatment as prevention (TasP) we have the tools to end this epidemic, along with all HIV-related stigmas. So what’s stopping us?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that expanding the use of PrEP for those who are uninfected but at high risk could prevent 17,000 new HIV infections in the US by 2020. Achieving such an increase, though, has proven to be tricky in the past.
Approximately 1.2 million people in the US are at substantial risk of HIV and would benefit from PrEP, yet many healthcare providers are unaware of this option. And there’s only an estimated 100,000 worldwide on PrEP.
There’s also a lack of access in the US, particularly in the rural South, because of poor public transportation infrastructure, as well as poverty, income inequality and stigma. In Canada, too, it’s more difficult to access without private health insurance.