The fight against the spread of HIV has a new weapon – PrEP, a drug program that prevents transmission.
Image: Cec Busby / SX Magazine
The article was originally published in The Saturday Paper, 18 July 2016.
This week, researchers at the Kirby Institute from the University of New South Wales, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations made headlines with their announcement of the “end of AIDS” as a public health issue in Australia. While this is very welcome news, the prevalence of the infection that leads to AIDS – HIV – remains a significant concern. Fortunately, a breakthrough treatment that could halt its spread, and ease tension in the community over stigma associated with HIV, is becoming available.
Ted Cook, of PASH.tm, a sexual health network for trans men, is one of a growing number of Australians receiving the benefits of the new weapon in the fight against HIV – pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. “PrEP has completely removed any and all anxiety I had about sex,” he says. “I feel that I’ve been liberated from a fear I didn’t realise was even there until it was removed.”