Unequal HIV Prevention Pill Use Puts Minority Men At Higher Risk

The study also suggests that doctors can do more to help close this gap of HIV prevention pill intake between white and coloured men

Fewer Minority men who are at risk for HIV take a prevention pill or discuss it with their doctors, US researchers say.

Awareness of a pill for “preexposure prophylaxis,” or PrEP, is high for all groups of men who have sex with men. But lower proportions of black and Hispanic men, compared with white men, have actually gotten prescriptions for the drug, which is 99 per cent effective at preventing HIV transmission, the study team found.

Based on interviews, researchers found the disparities emerge at the point of having a discussion about PrEP with a healthcare provider. This suggests doctors can do more to help close this gap, they write in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“This type of research is critical to finding - and correcting - missed opportunities to offer PrEP to people at risk for HIV, particularly among African American and Latino gay and bisexual men,” said study leader Dafna Kanny of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.

National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is September 27. The “Ending the HIV Epidemic” national initiative aims to reduce new infections by 75 per cent in five years and by 90 per cent in 10 years.