BC makes HIV pre-exposure prevention (PrEP) available free to those at high risk

In case you missed it, the BC government released a statement on December 28 saying “British Columbians at high risk of HIV infection will be able to receive pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily oral antiretroviral medication that prevents new HIV infection, at no cost.”

This move has long been advocated for by the Community Based Research Centre for Gay Men’s Health, YouthCO, and Health Initiative for Men. Their advocacy work has been supported by PAN and identified as an urgent advocacy item at PAN’s Fall Conference.

The government release reads, in part:

“B.C. has led the country and the world on efforts to control HIV and AIDS over the last three decades with the development and implementation of the made-in-B.C. Treatment as Prevention strategy. The addition of PrEP and expansion of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to our Treatment as Prevention strategy has the potential to further accelerate the decline of new HIV infections in the province,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, director, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

People at risk include men and transwomen who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and people who have sex with individuals living with HIV.

PrEP will be available through the BC Centre for Excellence’s HIV Drug Treatment program, which is funded by the Ministry of Health through the B.C. PharmaCare program. People interested in accessing it should talk to their health-care provider.

 

To read the entire news release, see Preventative medication will protect people at risk of HIV on the BC government’s website.

 

Learn More:

PAN letter to the Ministry of Health, December 2017
Publicly-Funded PrEP Available for BC’s First Nation and Inuit People
PAN Supports the Call for PrEP to be covered by Pharmacare
 

Questions? Feedback? Get in touch! Janet Madsen, Capacity Building and Knowledge Translation Coordinator,

[email protected]