Number of new people signing up to take the medication in Vancouver also drops
When British Columbians were told to stay home and stay safe at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Denis Laferriere did exactly that.
It also meant that his dating life was put on hold. So, Laferriere decided to stop taking his daily PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medication, which is used to prevent the spread of HIV.
“I just decided if I’m not going to be on the dating scene, I might as well not take it,” he said.
And it appears Laferriere is part of a trend in B.C.
There was a drop of 30 per cent in PrEP prescriptions between April and May and a 70 per cent drop in new initiations into the program, according to the Vancouver-based B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
At the centre, almost all PrEP treatment is used by gay, bisexual and other men who sleep with men, as well as transgender women. That’s followed by less than one percent each of heterosexual men and woman, and people who inject drugs, according to data from the last two years.
Dr. Junine Toy, senior manager for the drug treatment program at the centre, says it’s difficult to know the exact reason for the changing numbers.
“Certainly, there does seem to be … a change in the volume that aligned with the response to COVID,” she said.
Normally, Toy says the PrEP program has about 150 to 200 new members a month, a number, she says, that is now much lower.