PrEP Is Not Magic-and Treating It That Way Undermines Its Incredible Power

It’s been a confusing week with regard to PrEP-an HIV-prevention strategy which currently consists of taking a daily pill (Truvada) to prevent infection if one is exposed to the virus.

At a major conference for HIV research-the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections-the CDC revealed that, if deployed widely alongside pushes for more HIV testing and treatment, PrEP has the potential to help reduce new infections in the U.S. by 70 percent, preventing an estimated 185,000 new cases by 2020. Specifically, suppressing the virus to “undetectable”-and therefore essentially nontransmissible-levels in HIV-positive people could prevent 168,000 infections, while an expansion of access to PrEP to negative individuals could forestall 17,000 new cases.

Those numbers add to the promise of PrEP, which has been shown to be 99 percent effective at preventing HIV transmission if taken daily as directed. But of course, that statistic leaves a 1 percent chance of infection open-and, unfortunately, an instance of that 1 percent also showed up at the conference.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below