Tag Archives: PrEP

PrEP: Third FDA Anniversary

Three years ago today the FDA approved Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Since then PrEP has remained controversial. Powerful naysayers like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation run anti-PrEP ads in a major publications while other HIV/AIDS groups and health departments in major US cities vigorously promote PrEP for at-risk populations. In another PrEP promotion, the hook-up app Scruff is today …

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VICE: The Truvada Revolution

VICE has launched a three-part series titled The Truvada Revolution.  A drug called Truvada is the first the FDA-approved means of preventing HIV infection. If an HIV-negative person takes the pill every day, they’re nearly 99 percent protected from contracting the virus. Controversy continues to surround the broad uptake of Truvada, but the landscape of safer sex and HIV-prevention changes …

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STUDY: PrEP Reaches Max Effectiveness Against HIV After One Week Of Dosing

Poz.com reports: Daily Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV takes five to seven days to reach top estimated effectiveness among men who have sex with men (MSM). High levels of protection are maintained for perhaps a week after the last dose. According to levels of drug detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and comparisons of those results to …

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Insurance Company Ends PrEP Coverage UPDATE: Company Reverses Decision

Poz.com reports: Assurant Health, a national company specializing in health insurance coverage for individuals and small businesses, will no longer cover the med Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent contracting HIV. Several Assurant customers who had been taking Truvada (comprising the antiretrovirals tenofovir and emtricitabine) as PrEP were recently notified that the insurer would end coverage of the med …

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Short Film on PrEP: Unwrapping Truvada

Featuring Dan Savage, Cleve Jones, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

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New PrEP Study Shows 86% Effectiveness For Before/After Sex Dosing Schedule

Via the Associated Press: For the first time, a study shows that a drug used to treat HIV infection also can help prevent it when taken before and after risky sex by gay men. The results offer hope of a more appealing way to help prevent the disease beyond taking daily pills and using condoms, although those methods are still …

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GMHC To Host PrEP Rally

Gay Men’s Health Crisis will host a “PrEP Rally” on February 2nd to discuss the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. From their Facebook event page: “Heard about PrEP & Truvada? Not sure if it’s right for you? Not sure how to get it with or without insurance? Let’s clear up some rumors and get the facts! Join …

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New Anti-PrEP Ad From AIDS Healthcare

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation continues its campaign against PrEP and Truvada today with the above open letter to the CDC which is being published in major newspapers. Writing for the New York Times, Josh Barro notes that the AHF is fighting this battle alone: “There’s no large controversy; there is one loud voice,” said Charles King, the president of the …

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Injectable PrEP Study Advances

Via AIDSMap: Researchers have determined the dose of an injectable formulation of the integrase inhibitor cabotegravir (formerly GSK744) that will be taken into efficacy trials to see if it can be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Studies in animals were presented earlier this year suggesting that drug levels stayed high enough in the body for it to be injected quarterly, …

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New PrEP Study Upends Edict That Med Must Be Taken Daily To Be Effective

Gus Caims reports at AIDS Map: In an extraordinary development, a second European scientific trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has had its randomised phase closed early due to high effectiveness, just two weeks after the UK PROUD trial did exactly the same thing. The investigators of the IPERGAY trial, which has six sites in France and one in Canada, announced …

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SAN FRANCISO: Supervisors Create Fund To Educate Residents About PrEP

Via Mission Local: In a 10 to 1 vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation to allocate $301,600 from the city’s general fund toward educating San Francisco residents about the HIV-prevention pill Truvada. Now “health navigators,” who will be commissioned by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, will help patients access the drug — whether they have …

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Human Rights Campaign Endorses PrEP

Via the Associated Press: The largest U.S. gay-rights organization Saturday endorsed efforts to promote the use of a once-a-day pill to prevent HIV infection and called on insurers to provide more generous coverage of the drug. Some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe the drug, Truvada, on the premise that it might encourage high-risk, unprotected sexual behavior. However, its preventive …

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CDC Launches PrEP Hotline For Doctors

After reports that relatively few healthcare providers are prescribing Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, the CDC has launched a free hotline to answer their questions. PrEPline is aimed toward physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants providing primary care to uninfected patients with high risk. The phone service is staffed by experienced clinicians and offers written and online checklists, guidelines …

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NYC Takes PrEP Campaign To Grindr

The New York City Department of Health has launched a PrEP campaign on Grindr, Scruff, and social media sites. And of course, the ever combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation is furious. A stigma persists that Truvada is a “party pill” — an attitude shared by some doctors who scold patients about their sexual practices and won’t prescribe it, said Anthony Hayes, …

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Andrew Sullivan Writes About PrEP

“Here are your options: the blue pill or the red pill. Take the one-pill-a-day Truvada and never get HIV; take the often one-pill anti-retroviral pill, and you will never give someone HIV. To make doubly sure, you can always use a condom. Except almost every man who ever had sex hates condoms – and, unlike a pill you take every …

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SF Might Distribute Free Truvada

San Francisco might become the world’s first city to distribute free Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via Huffington Post: Supervisor David Campos announced plans to make PrEP cheap or free for residents in statements on his Facebook. “This coming Tuesday, I will introduce a measure to allocate funds for navigators to educate patients about PrEP, and provide subsidies to …

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SF Supervisor: I’m On Truvada

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener has become the first elected official to publicly disclose that he is taking Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Josh Barro reports at the New York Times: “A much larger segment of gay men should be taking a close look at PrEP,” Mr. Wiener, who represents the same Castro-based district once held by Harvey Milk, …

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AHF Launches Anti-PrEP Ad Campaign

The combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation is launching a print ad campaign against the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via press release: AHF’s ‘PrEP Facts’ ad campaign educating the public about adherence issues and PrEP initially started running this week in a few newspapers, magazines and online outlets in California and will continue and expand to …

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LOS ANGELES: Porn Shoot Permits Drop 90% After Condom Use Mandate

In November 2012, Los Angeles County voters approved a bill that mandates the use of condoms in all porn video shoots. The Associated Press reports today that local applications for porn filming permits dropped by more than 90% last year. But that doesn’t mean that condom-less filming isn’t still taking place. So where are those hundreds of films available for …

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New PReP Efficacy Study Released

A new study on the efficacy of Truvada as an daily HIV preventive was released yesterday at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. According the research, which was simultaneously published in The Lancet, missing an occasional daily dose does not increase the chance of infection, but the drug must be taken at least four times a week in order …

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