Tag Archives: PrEP

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 …

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

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

“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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Josh Barro writes for the New York Times: The sample size (2,500 subjects, half taking a placebo) wasn’t large enough to establish that Truvada is 100 percent effective when taken daily, especially because only 18 percent of subjects who were given Truvada actually had the medication in their blood at levels that were consistent with daily use. But by looking …

Via Buzzfeed: The World Health Organization announced Friday that for the first time, it “strongly recommends” that men who have sex with men should consider antiretroviral drugs along with the use of condoms as an additional method of preventing HIV infection. The health agency said that new prevention options such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — currently in the form of …

A stunning declaration from the World Health Organization: The World Health Organization has suggested for the first time that all men who have sex with men should take antiretroviral medicine, warning that HIV infection rates among gay men are exploding around the world. In guidelines published Friday, it said that it “strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider …