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March 28, 2024

Study finds queer men unaware of anti-HIV pill

By SHERRY SIMKOVIC | October 20, 2016

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Bigblock/CC-BY-2.0 Pre-exposure prophylaxis dramatically reduces chances of getting HIV.

A new Hopkins study showed that 60 percent of gay and bisexual men are unaware of an anti-HIV pill. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a once-daily pill that can dramatically reduce the chances of contracting HIV.

Doctors and clinics are the main proponents of sharing PrEP information with gay and bisexual men. Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers led by postdoctoral fellow Julia Raifman aimed to figure out the relationship between regularly seeing a healthcare provider in the Baltimore area and awareness of PrEP.

In June 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that

“[There] were more than 1.2 million people with AIDS living the U.S. and most of them don’t know it.”

The report also mentioned that gay and bisexual men, particularly African-American men, were most affected. From 2005 to 2014, the prevalence of HIV testing has led to a decrease in the number of HIV diagnoses in the U.S., indicative of a significant decline in new infections.

While overall progress has been made, diagnoses have actually increased among African-American gay and bisexual men. The HIV prevalence in Baltimore is among the highest in the country and an estimated 31 percent of gay and bisexual men in the area are infected with HIV.

PrEP, which has been likened to the birth control pill since both need to be taken daily to prevent an unwanted outcome (HIV and pregnancy, respectively), first received FDA approval in July 2012. Clinical trials have shown that it is a safe and effective proactive HIV treatment, with a 92 percent success rate of preventing transmission of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends PrEP for members of high risk populations. Previous studies have demonstrated that once people at risk for HIV learn about PrEP, they show enthusiasm and interest; however, most of them report that they haven’t heard of the medication before then. Patients need a prescription for PrEP. However, doctors tend to be reluctant to prescribe it or even offer it as an option.

The team analyzed the 2014 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance data from Baltimore and discovered that, of 401 HIV-negative participants, 168 (42 percent) participants were aware of PrEP. Researchers discovered that, for gay or bisexual men, having seen a doctor and having been tested for another sexually transmitted disease in the prior year did not increase the likelihood of PrEP awareness. However, participants who had been tested for specifically HIV in the prior year were more likely to be aware of the drug.

The researchers discovered that, when the participants who were unaware of PrEP were informed about the drug, 60 percent said they would be willing to use it.

The researchers also found that two times as many African American participants in the study were unaware of PrEP compared to white participants. According to Raifman, this is particularly troubling because statistics suggest that about one in every two gay black men will be diagnosed with HIV.

Ensuring that doctors and patients are adequately educated and informed about PrEP will be a key to expanding its use, Raifman says.

“A lot of providers who remember the early days of the AIDS crisis, when high doses of AZT caused horrible side effects, may be intimidated by PrEP,” she said in a press release. “The most common symptoms of PrEP are mild nausea and fatigue, which usually go away after the first month. Physicians may not understand that PrEP is nothing like the high doses of AZT initially used to treat HIV.”

Raifman believes that programs need to be implemented in order to raise awareness and teach physicians how to appropriately use PrEP.

“This is a new, safe and effective tool in our toolbox to prevent HIV,” Raifman said in a press release. “But it does us no good if no one is using it.”


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