What's PrEP Got to Do with It?
This Friday, February 7th, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It's an opportunity for the nation to take a look at the AIDS epidemic in Black America from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view. What's not to love about that?
On Friday, Black treatment advocate networks (BTANs) around the country are hosting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) forums to raise awareness and educate our communities about PrEP. Thirty-five years into this epidemic—and with all we know about HIV, and we know a lot—we still have alarming rates of new HIV infections in this country. Roughly 50,000 Americans are infected every year and 44 percent of them are Black. In many parts of the country, 50 percent of Black gay men are already HIV infected—and many of them don't know it.
If you look at the AIDS epidemic in Black communities, you would not know that that the tools to end the AIDS epidemic in America already exist. Many Black Americans are unaware or have misinformation about the new tools that could change the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic in our community and dramatically reduce our current HIV/AIDS rate. PrEP is one of those tools.
PrEP is a treatment to prevent people who are not infected with HIV (that is, they are HIV negative, or HIV-) from acquiring the virus. It involves taking one of the antiretroviral treatments that people with HIV/AIDS use. In clinical trials, when used properly, PrEP reduced the risk of acquiring the virus by over 90 percent. That is huge!
People attending the BTAN PrEP forums will learn what PrEP is, who it's for, how you use it, and what the risks and benefits are. They will also learn about the possible impact that PreP could have on condom usage. Current guidelines recommend that PrEP be used with condoms. But PrEP may provide some level of protection to people who have already chosen not to use condoms or are unable to use condoms.
Given the epidemic in Black communities, we need to know everything we can possibly know about all of the potential tools available to us so that we can make informed, rational decisions about which tools to use in which circumstances.
The combination of treatment as prevention—which offers the possibility of reducing transmission of HIV by over 90 percent—and PrEP—with can reduce acquisition of HIV by over 90 percent—has the promise to break the back of the HIV epidemic in our community. That's a conversation we must have. So check our Events calendar to find the BTAN PrEP forum nearest you. You can also follow us as we have this conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
Additionally, you live in Los Angeles County, stop by Car Pros Kia of Carson at 21243 S. Avalon Blvd. from 11 to 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb 7th. You will be able meet your elected officials and we will be offering free HIV tests and free giveaways. You can also enter a raffle for 2014 Kia Forte and win the raffle for a four-day Carnival Cruise.
One of the most important things we need to fight AIDS is to involve local business. Business owners and entrepreneurs can play a huge role in ending the AIDS epidemic—and they should be motivated to do so: a healthier community is a consumer-driven community. And not to be too morose, dead people are not good customers. Car Pros Kia is an example of a business that is committed to the health and wellbeing of its community.
In this issue we continue our series on HIV criminalization courtesy of our friends at ProPublica. We look at new media as it relates to serving Black MSM. New research from NIH reminds us about the high HIV infection rates among youth and young adults—young MSM in particular. We also run a story to remind us that as important as PrEP is, only one in five doctors who know about PrEp have actually prescribed it. Finally, being able to vote is vital to participating in our democracy. But as our friends at Colorlines report, the vote is at risk in many communities, particularly among people who are Black, Brown or poor. Pennsylvania's Voter ID law was recently ruled unnecessarily burdensome and unconstitutional.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our forums on Friday. Don't forget, if you enter the Drive Out AIDS raffle before Friday, February 7th, you get entered into the raffle for the four-day Carnival Cruise for free!
Yours in the struggle,
Phill