Daily Beast
by Samantha Allen
September 14, 2018
In the United States, HIV could be all but ended within a generation or two if everyone who was at risk of infection took PrEP, a daily preventative medication that the CDC says can can lower the chances of contracting the virus “by more than 90 percent.”
But as encouraging as that figure might be, a depressing new statistic emerged this week in the first study to look at PrEP usage rates using a national probability sample.
Even though PrEP could stop the HIV epidemic in its tracks, only 4.1 percent of sexually active, HIV-negative gay and bisexual men in the United States are taking it.
Most, at least, were familiar with the little blue pill—but still not all: Only about 52 percent of the 18-to-25-year-old cohort, for example, said they knew what PrEP was.
