Following years of oral PrEP’s slow uptake, a new innovation is generating excitement around the highly effective drug
The HIV prevention medication PrEP was called a game-changer, superpower and major breakthrough in the global effort toward zero new HIV transmissions when it first hit Canadian markets six years ago. Big praise, and steep expectations, for the little blue pill.
Today, PrEP’s foretold impact has yet to pass. In fact, HIV diagnoses in Canada have remained relatively stable over the past decade. This is also mirrored globally, as new HIV transmissions shrunk only 3.6 percent between 2020 and 2021—the smallest international decline since 2016.
In other words, PrEP—though revolutionary in its effectiveness, reducing the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99 percent when taken as prescribed—just isn’t getting to the people who need it most. This includes queer people, since men who have sex with men continue to make up the majority of new HIV cases in North America.