Doctors Should Be Urged To Offer PrEP To All Patients At High Risk Of HIV, Task Force Recommends
If new guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force are approved, it would expand access to the medication that's effective against preventing HIV since most private health plans are required under the Affordable Care Act to cover the full cost of services recommended by the panel. “This is definitely fantastic news and validates everything science has been saying all along,” said Dr. Aaron Lord, a physician at New York University School of Medicine. "When taken daily, there’s very good evidence that the chance of acquiring H.I.V. is essentially zero."
The New York Times:
Task Force Calls For Offering PrEP To All At High Risk For H.I.V.
An influential government task force has drafted a recommendation that would for the first time urge doctors to offer a daily prophylactic pill to patients who are at risk for contracting H.I.V. The recommendation would include all men and women whose sexual behavior, sex partners or drug use place them at high risk of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. (Rabin, 11/20)
The Washington Post:
Everyone At High Risk Of HIV Should Be Offered Preventive Meds, Panel Says
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force estimated that 1.2 million people are eligible for the daily drug regimen, which is very effective at preventing HIV infection, but that only 78,360 took the medication in 2016. About 40,000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV that year. John Epling, a member of the task force and a professor of community medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Carilion Clinic, said routine discussion of the medication has not permeated primary care. He said he suspects that some doctors are not having conversations with patients who should be considered high risk. (Bernstein, 11/20)
Stat:
Panel Recommends Everyone At High Risk Of HIV Be Offered A Prevention Pill
The panel also noted that the CDC had estimated 1.2 million people were eligible for the pill three years ago, although only 78,300 actually used the medicine in 2016, when roughly 40,000 were diagnosed with HIV. Since 2012, usage climbed from 3.3 people per 100,000 to 36.7 percent in 2017, a 56 percent rise, according to a study published earlier this year in the Annals of Epidemiology. (Silverman, 11/20)
