And a lot of people aren’t.
In 2020, just 25% of the 1.2 million Americans who could benefit from PrEP were taking it.
Limitations of PrEP
PrEP is intended solely to protect people from getting HIV.
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It does not protect against any othersexually transmitted infection (STI).
To this end, condomswhetherinternalorexternalstill afford the best protection against most STIs.
Does PrEP Reduce Condom Usage?
Studies have shown that the opposite may be true.
This shouldn’t suggest that PrEP will automatically reinforce safer sex practices in all at-risk groups.
This is especially true in younger people, particularly younger MSM.
Can PrEP Fail?
PrEP has never been endorsed as a stand-alone strategy.
These concerns were amplified when four high-profile cases of PrEP failure were reported between 2017 and 2018.
For two of the cases, the HIV strain that they were infected with was multi-drug resistant.
What Is Transmitted Resistance?
Transmitted resistance is a situation in which a person with a drug-resistant HIV strain passes it to a partner.
How Much Adherence Is Enough?
It can be safely assumed that higher rates of treatment adherence translate to higher rates of protection against HIV.
Research suggests that PrEP may offer less protection from HIV in females despite high levels of adherence.
This disparitypaired with isolated cases of PrEP failureillustrates that the risk of HIV, however low, is present.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing HIV with PreP.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration.FDA approves first injectable treatment for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.
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