Why Nobody’s Funding the HIV-Prevention Strategy Ten Times More Effective than PrEP

TasP – or Treatment as Prevention-aims to promote awareness that it’s incredibly difficult to get HIV from someone who’s undetectable. But that idea is proving a hard pill to swallow

“This is a world that is run mostly by HIV-negative people, and they’re focused on protecting their own interests,” Bruce Richman tells me. He’s the executive director of Prevention Access Campaign, a multi-agency initiative working to end HIV and HIV-related stigma, and he’s referring to the world of HIV prevention and treatment, where for the last few years, public attention has been fixed on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

PrEP is an HIV prevention method where high risk, HIV-negative people take virus-fighting antiretroviral drugs and see up to a 99 percent decrease in their chances of getting HIV. It’s an exciting innovation, especially for the HIV-negative; CDC researchers have predicted that expanding the use of PrEP could prevent 17,000 new infections by 2020. As a result, HIV prevention programs across the country have gone all-in on pervasive public awareness campaigns and treatment access programs over the past few years. Which is fantastic, but as Richman warns, “I think it’s short sighted to think that PrEP is the best way to protect their own interests.”

Another treatment strategy exists that’s potentially ten times as effective as PrEP, but it’s getting much less of the limelight. Known as treatment as prevention (TasP), it involves HIV-positive patients getting their viral load (or the number of copies of HIV measurable in their blood) below levels detectable via testing. When that’s achieved, multiple studies have shown that it’s almost impossible to transmit HIV to uninfected sexual partners. The CDC predicts that if 80 percent of people living with HIV were to achieve an undetectable viral load through antiretroviral therapy (ART), it could prevent about 168,000 infections by 2020.

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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