A new Daily Beast article reports on the potent — yet promising — HIV treatment known as PrEP — or pre-exposure prophylaxis.
In case you did not know, PrEP is essentially the use of the strong medicines used to treat HIV+ folks to help prevent infection in people who are negative.
The new story comes just days after the first-ever reported successes in HIV vaccine development — a major morale boost for HIV researchers worldwide.
PrEP, too, is also the subject of numerous clinical trials right now — and the first PrEP results should be released early next year. While we are still years away from fully understanding the long-term potential for PrEP usage, tests on animals — and unauthorized use by humans — suggests PrEP will provide some level of defense against HIV.
Accordingly, it is likely folks will use PrEP in lieu of condoms — a fact many in the HIV community are both afraid to admit and worry could lead to a return in rampant unsafe sexual practices, especially among Gay men.
On the other hand, many HIV treatment professionals feel we must use any medication and method possible to help HIV negative people stay that way.
It’s an intense and delicate debate — and much like battles over clean needles and condom distribution before it, pits morality against medicine.
This was the concern of Pres. Obama’s AIDS Czar Jeff Crowley late last month when talking about the potential for PrEP. He essentially wondered if “middle America” is ready for PrEP and expressed fear that it could be hijacked by Fox News types.
“There is a high risk for demagoguery about this issue,” Crowley observed. “My nightmare is the cable talk shows saying, this is just another way to let irresponsible homosexuals have more sex.”
Yet on the opposing side, there are those who wonder if fear of right wing backlash should have any place in American public health policy. Keep people healthy — by any means necessary.
The (expertly-written, we might say) piece in today’s Daily Beast indeed posits a world where a simple pill could mean HIV protection no matter the accompanying sexual or “lifestyle”-related behavior.
So we ask you, dear reader: Is this the correct course to take? Considering the costs — as well as the benefits — is PrEP the right approach to combating HIV.
It’s an important debate — so important that perhaps we may even see THIS person adding in her two cents.
HIV is a nasty disease. Once you get it, there is no cure for it. Safe sex and abstinence is the only way to avoid getting it.
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