San Francisco will be the first city in the nation to offer PrEP treatment to HIV negative individuals. Read the article here.
Dr Conant’s Comments:
“I started offering preexposure prophylaxis to HIV-negative men who were at high risk of contracting HIV about six years ago. I had only about a dozen patients in that six year time frame, and most of them chose to stop taking the preexposure prophylaxis because their insurance companies would not pay for the medication and it was too expensive.
About 10 years ago Dr. Michael Youle and I approached senior management at Gilead to provide funding for an HIV preexposure prophylactic trial in high-risk men. Unfortunately, the company was not willing to pursue this initiative.
Recent trials have shown that preexposure prophylaxis if taken regularly significantly reduces the chance of contracting HIV. Studies have also shown that if HIV-positive patients are treated and can maintain an undetectable viral load they are at little or no risk to infecting their sexual partners.
It appears to me that the way to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco is to test everyone for HIV, treat everyone who is HIV-positive the moment they are found to be positive, and then monitor those patients through the Public Health Service to be certain that they maintain an undetectable viral load.
This use of resources would significantly diminish HIV transmission, allow for contact tracing, keep HIV positive people healthier and decrease transmission. The cost of this program would be more than the cost of prescribing pre-exposure prophylaxis to a few patients, but would be far more effective in reducing the number of HIV infections in the city and in the long run far more cost-effective.
I am pleased to see that San Francisco is going to be a test site for preexposure prophylaxis. I’m anxious to see who is going to pay for this program long term.”
