PrEP for Your Future

Pre-exposure prophylaxis. (Say that five times fast. Or even once fast.)

This medical mouthful, also known as PrEP, may be hard to say, but it’s a term you should become intimately familiar with, especially if you’re at all concerned with HIV prevention.

Truvada is the new little blue pill making headlines across the world. This PrEP medication is used to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection for high-risk individuals, including men who have sex with men and heterosexual couples where one partner has HIV-1 and the other does not.

In the past two years, you’ve more than likely heard about Truvada and PrEP, but most people haven’t learned much about it. Why should you care? Simple: because it works. When taken regularly, the effectiveness of preventing HIV in men who have sex with men is upwards of 90 percent. Dr. Mark Thrun, director of HIV/STD prevention and control, and director of the Denver Prevention Training Center at Denver Public Health, calls Truvada a medical breakthrough and a huge discovery in HIV prevention.

“PrEP works,” says Dr. Thrun. “There is nothing else out there that is even remotely comparable to it.”

The numbers speak for themselves.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of HIV infection was reduced by more than 92 percent in gay and bisexual men who were given PrEP and took the once-a-day pill consistently. A study done by the National Institute of Health (NIH) found the drug to actually be 99 percent effective.

Among heterosexual couples, the risk of HIV infection was reduced to 62 percent in individuals who took the drug consistently. In men and women in HIV-discordant couples — in which one partner has HIV and the other does not — those who received PrEP were 75 percent less likely to become infected. PrEP reduced the risk of HIV infection by up to 90 percent in those who consistently took the medication.

“This means that people who are at risk of contracting HIV and take pre-exposure prophylaxis as part of their prevention regimen they are likely not going to get HIV,” Dr. Thrun says.

Despite PrEP’s proven success rates and a gleaming recommendation from both the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevention method hasn’t caught on with people yet. “People just don’t know about it,” Dr. Thrun says. “What’s more is that very few medical providers are educating the communities about it.”

If you think you may be at risk for HIV infection, here’s what you should know:

According to Denver Health, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a preventative medicine that reduces the chance of becoming HIV-positive before being exposed to the virus. PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection when used consistently by individuals who are at high risk of HIV infection. In fact, PrEP has been found to be more than 90 percent effective at reducing HIV risk when used as directed.

PrEP is covered by most health insurance companies, including Colorado Medicaid.

Common side effects of Truvada include abdominal pain, headache, and decreased weight.

Contact your health provider for more information about how you can reduce your chances of contracting the HIV-1 virus.

For more information on PrEP and Truvada, visit DenverHealth.org