“The most important thing about PrEP is knowing that I am safe. It’s one a daily pill that not only ensures your safety from HIV but also lets you feel safe when dating someone who is HIV positive. PrEP is an extra security net when having sex beyond condoms that make you feel safe and comfortable. My providers have been amazing support and have helped me through every step of getting checkups and are easily contacted if I have questions. Knowing the work they do in providing HIV awareness, I hope the new PrEP clinic does the best! One pill a day keeps HIV away!”
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Today is National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day. To bring awareness to the place that education, prevention, and treatment of HIV and AIDS has in the reproductive health care spectrum, our story today celebrates PrEP, or Pre-exposure prophylaxis. PrEP is a way for non-HIV positive individuals, but who are at high risk for HIV contraction, to prevent infection by taking a pill everyday.
One of the biggest recent developments in HIV prevention is Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): a daily medication that is highly effective in preventing HIV infection. But because PrEP is relatively new, many physicians haven’t been trained in providing it – particularly to young patients. That’s why we’re excited to join with Dr. Vinny Chulani, an active faculty member in Physicians for Reproductive Health’s Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Program (ARSHEP) and a leading advocate for youth sexual and reproductive health, in marking National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day with two announcements on how we’re working to take on the challenge of youth HIV.
Dr. Chulani is an adolescent medicine specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. His work with homeless, LGBT, and commercially sexually exploited youth, who are particularly at risk for HIV, has made him deeply aware of the urgent need for HIV prevention services for young people in the local community. Today, Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s Section of Adolescent Medicine and Bill Holt Clinic HIV programs are announcing Phoenix PrEP Access Project, a new HIV PrEP service to provide at-risk youth with access to the preventive medication that will dramatically reduce their risk for HIV.
To honor today, Physicians for Reproductive Health is releasing the newest module in our of ARSHEP (Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health Education Program) curriculum, HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Adolescents, created in collaboration with Dr. Chulani as well as with the New York Promoting and Advancing Teen Health project at Columbia University. In this module, provide an overview of what PrEP is, how to determine when a patient is a good candidate to use it, and additional resources for more information on HIV and PrEP. We hope this module will help medical professionals who care for young people to add PrEP to their practice.
Special thanks to Dr. Chulani for sharing this story with us.
