Available in France since 2016, this preventive treatment against HIV is used by more than 30,000 people.
- PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) prevents “the HIV virus from developing and settling as soon as it enters the body”.
In the early 1980s, the first cases of AIDS appeared in Western countries. The virus will be identified by researchers at the Institut Pasteur in 1983. Since then, knowledge of the virus has progressed, and so have ways of fighting against it. If there is currently no vaccine or curative treatment, preventive treatment has been available since 2016 in France. PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), helps prevent “the HIV virus to grow and attach itself as soon as it enters the bodyindicates the AIDS prevention platform. What prevents the virus from surviving and allows the person to remain HIV-negative.” On the other hand, it does not protect against sexually transmitted infections: syphilis, hepatitis, chlamydia, etc.
How does it work ?
PrEP can be taken in two ways: either daily or the day before sex and then for the next two days. “When the drug is taken correctly according to the indicated regimen, the risk of contamination is minimal.highlighted Aids. The association explains that applications have been developed to help people comply with the treatment, especially for the second mode of intake.
Who is PrEP for?
This innovative treatment is recommended for people most at risk of being infected: men who have sex with other men, trans people who have sex with men, sex workers or drug users. intravenous drug. In France, 32,000 people have benefited from it since 2016, 97% of whom are men. “We need to be able to offer PrEP to many more women, sex workers and populations in difficulty“, alarmed Professor Patrick Papazian, doctor-sexologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, in the Parisian.
How to get it?
To have access to the preventive drug, you must have a prescription from a doctor from a hospital service specializing in the management of HIV or from a free information, screening and diagnosis center (Cegidd). At this time, the attending physician cannot prescribe PrEP. Any prescription requires quarterly appointments with the doctor who wrote the prescription, to check that there are no side effects or HIV infection. In addition, PrEP is covered by health insurance.
A decrease in contamination
“The impact is very positive, the figures show that there is finally a shift in the contamination curve“says Patrick Papazian at Parisian. The positive effects of PrEP have already been observed abroad: it has been authorized since 2012 in the United States, where the number of new cases of HIV infection fell by 49% between this date and 2016 in the city of San Francisco. In the United Kingdom, the decrease is 18% between 2015 and 2016. In France, a study, relayed by Aids, carried out in Paris, shows a 16% drop in new infections between 2015 and 2018, and 28% for gay or bisexual men. This decline can be explained, in part, by the development of access to PrEP.
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