pre-exposure

I've really been sinking my head into this PrEP (Pre-exposure prohylaxis) stuff lately. It is very exciting being in on the ground-level of a truly new advance in HIV prevention. As I feel about most of the questions that come up as we dance with this epidemic, PrEP will provide another opportunity to deal with our stigmas and determinations about who deserves healthcare, and who should be persued about being healthy. Gay men, drug users, and sex workers are traditionally some of our strongest pariahs. And our constructs of hiv risk-taking behaviors haven't done much to dismantle any thinking that folks who make "bad" decisions deserve "bad" outcomes. But those at highest risk will likely be the most plausible population for the drug that could prevent HIV infection.

PrEP, if it's as efficacious as I hope it can be, won't be useful for everyone, or even every person at high risk for HIV. But it will be an opportunity for us to acknowledge that the problem of AIDS doesn't go away until we start making some ground on the problem of our bad decisions/bad outcomes line of thinking with regard to people's health. Risk-takers deserve access to the best healthcare too. PrEP gives us a chance to aggressively pursue the health of those whose lifestyles, decisions, or time and location place them at greater risk for HIV than most of us. I'm not sure we're going to be starting out on that foot, but that's what I'll be fighting for. 28 years into this thing, leaving the least of us out in the cold should not be an option. That's what I believe my predecessors have been fighting for. ~cb