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rfmcdonaldMy eye was caught when I saw, on a subway train somewhere in Brooklyn, this ad advertising PrEP.
The preventative use of the drug Truvada to prevent HIV infection in HIV-negative people has come a long way. I first noted PrEP directly in a November 2014 post, that one reflecting on how far the idea of using anti-HIV medications to prevent HIV infection had come since I first heard of the idea in a 2005 article talking about how crystal meth users would take Truvada component tenofovir before heading off on drug-fueled orgies.
PrEP has gone far beyond those early days. It is now mainstream, approved of by the CDC and supported by the New York City Department of Health. Local health organizations like the Gay Men's Health Crisis and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Centre can apparently set people up with Truvada at reasonable cost and in reasonable amounts of time. It's even available in Canada, Truvada being covered since September under Ontario's provincial drug plan. I'm considering the mechanics of getting on it myself.
And yet, here in Ontario and in Toronto, home to a MSM community surely as intrisically at risk of HIV infection as New York City's, PrEP does not have nearly the same mainstream presence as in New York City. The biggest article I've seen on it on the non-LGBTQ media was Josh Dehaas' oddly dismissive article. Straight people I've talked to about the drug here in Canada have been routinely amazed by the fact of the existence of PrEP. Shouldn't Toronto, at least, try to change this?
The preventative use of the drug Truvada to prevent HIV infection in HIV-negative people has come a long way. I first noted PrEP directly in a November 2014 post, that one reflecting on how far the idea of using anti-HIV medications to prevent HIV infection had come since I first heard of the idea in a 2005 article talking about how crystal meth users would take Truvada component tenofovir before heading off on drug-fueled orgies.
PrEP has gone far beyond those early days. It is now mainstream, approved of by the CDC and supported by the New York City Department of Health. Local health organizations like the Gay Men's Health Crisis and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Centre can apparently set people up with Truvada at reasonable cost and in reasonable amounts of time. It's even available in Canada, Truvada being covered since September under Ontario's provincial drug plan. I'm considering the mechanics of getting on it myself.
And yet, here in Ontario and in Toronto, home to a MSM community surely as intrisically at risk of HIV infection as New York City's, PrEP does not have nearly the same mainstream presence as in New York City. The biggest article I've seen on it on the non-LGBTQ media was Josh Dehaas' oddly dismissive article. Straight people I've talked to about the drug here in Canada have been routinely amazed by the fact of the existence of PrEP. Shouldn't Toronto, at least, try to change this?
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Date: 2018-02-03 08:38 pm (UTC)