Is a Pill a Day for HIV Prevention Enough?

via Chelsea Now, by Robert W. Moeller and Perry N. Halkitis

While PREP provides us an innovative and powerful strategy for curtailing HIV in gay men, we believe that PREP will only be effective if coupled with behavioral approaches that pay attention to emotions and desire and that speak to aging as well as new generations of gay men.

For years, the HIV prevention field has understood the potential for PREP to help contain the HIV epidemic, particularly in light of programs solely targeting behavior change that have simply fallen short. Ultimately, our success in eradicating HIV may be realized by coupling PREP with effective behavioral interventions. Over the last decade, our collaborators at Harlem United and Gay Men’s Health Crisis (www.gmhc.org) have developed innovative programs geared toward helping individuals reduce their behavioral risk. These programs often focus on providing individuals with a combination of knowledge and skill to make sexual decisions that reflect their desire to prevent infection or transmission. Fortunately, these agencies have had the foresight to recognize that any approach to safer sex must move beyond overly simplistic models of “rational” decision-making.

Read the rest

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]