No matter where you come down on Truvada, sexual health and HIV can’t be shadowy subjects. We’ve got to talk it out — with our health care professionals, our sexual partners, and most importantly ourselves.
The below three-part (each is short!) Vice series on Truvada as a possible means to eradicate HIV in the near future called Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution is an excellent conversation starter.
If you don’t consider yourself well-versed on Truvada as PrEP, just watch it. You’ll come away with a broader understanding of the issues at play. Your health and the health of those you love would thank you if it could.
And if you’re on Truvada or think you know all there is to know, just watch it. The personal stories from a variety of affected communities is sure to add to your insight.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Watch below:
orrine
No we can’t. Any STD can be stopped this generation if everyone was mindful and used protection.
Another type of protection still won’t change people brains, AIDS still will exist until we find ways to vaccinate against it and everypone will be vaccinated.
redcarpet30
I’m so glad VICE did this, especially hearing from one of the iPREX study doctors. We need to hear from more doctors, public health officials, and scientists who know what they are talking about, not random internet people and scared activist types spreading fear, doubt, and slut shaming. Too many people have been scared away from something that could protect them by the concern trolling and ugliness on the internet regarding PrEP, myself among them.
stevebond
About 38 percent of HIV infected people in the USA are no on anti virals at present. This will never work. People are non compliant and the drug is around 1K a month.
Joemnhttn
I was on Truvada and had to stop when new RX insurer told me my “co-pays” would be over $6,000 per year…
So I’m at risk again.
Gilead, the manufacturer is making BILLIONS …. new infections will continue, and especially among younger, darker men will add huge costs,damage and prematurely end lives. WTF!
Truvada should be as available, with government support, as condoms.
redcarpet30
@Joemnhttn: I think that is a matter of time. States like Washington and New York are ensuring it’s covered by all insurance or the state itself if someone still doesn’t have insurance under the ACA, but its a process that takes time, trial and error. Admittedly VICE says in the video it still can’t reach minority communities very well. But that is hardly a reason to abandon the drug as is implied by some PrEP naysayers.
Realitycheck
@Joemnhttn:
Did your doctor tell you, Truvada (Viread component) over time damages kidneys? Max time of use 10 years, if below 50s, above 50s don’t even think
about it.
And that is assuming one has no side effects.
notevenwrong
@Joemnhttn, have you investigated Gilead’s assistance program for uninsured or underinsured patients? I think they will cover quite a lot.
Also, there have been recent stories about insurance companies dropping coverage for PrEP and then being forced to change their policies back and start covering it again when some patients exposed this to the media. Maybe that happened to your insurance company and you should take it up with them again, and if not maybe you can try to find out what these patients did.
Paco
@Realitycheck: A reformulated version of Tenofovir is being tested that has less possible adverse effects on kidneys and bones. Tenofovir alafenamide fumarate. I’m assuming once it is approved, it will eventually replace Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate that is currently used in Truvada.
notevenwrong
@Joemnhttn, here is the story about two insurers, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, and Assurant Health, that resumed coverage for PrEP when it was made public that they had denied coverage to some patients. So I would recommend that you contact a media outlet about your problem if you want to resume PrEP (if the Gilead assistance program doesn’t cover you sufficiently):
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/18/this-story-made-an-insurance-company-cover-aids-drugs.html
“Thankfully, however, when contacted by The Daily Beast about this change in behavior if not change in policy, Assurant took 27 hours to issue this statement: “We are reversing our decision and will be reaching out to policyholders who received the letter.”
“Eserman received an email from one large insurer, saying that Truvada is not on the company’s preventive drugs list—a list required by the Affordable Care Act—and so, even though it’s on the drug formulary, would not be covered. But when contacted by The Daily Beast, the company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, said they do cover prophylactic use of Truvada and “we have no plans to change our coverage policy for this.””
notevenwrong
@Joemnhttn, additional resources, from the Daily Beast article:
“By Wednesday, a Facebook group dedicated to Truvada as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) was abuzz and strategizing, and Lambda Legal, the gay rights and HIV-advocacy organization, had begun soliciting people who’d received the letter to contact them. Scott Schoettes, an attorney at Lambda Legal, said in an email that the organization “has been on the lookout for insurance coverage denials of Truvada as [prevention].” The organization is “exploring potential legal action.””
notevenwrong
@Realitycheck, regarding kidney function, it is rare and reversible upon discontinuation of Truvada:
http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hiv-prevention/hiv-prep/5023-truvada-for-prep-not-linked-to-kidney-impairment-resistance-is-rare
“1.3% of participants in the tenofovir-only group and 1.2% in the Truvada group developed a clinically significant confirmed 25% or greater decline in eGFR from baseline by 12 months; 1.8% and 2.5%, respectively, did so by 24 months.”
For the AVERAGE patient, the decline in kidney function as measured by eGFR was
-0.22/130. In other words, LESS THAN A FIFTH OF ONE PERCENT decline.
“At baseline the mean eGFR of the HIV negative partners was 130 mL/min/1.73 m2, indicating good kidney function. During a median follow-up of 18 months, the mean changes in eGFR were +0.14 in the tenofovir-only group, -0.22 in the Truvada group, and +1.37 mL/min/1.73 m2 in the placebo group.”
SportGuy
The answer is no, onsidering that most people on PREP are BB. This becomes even worse when it is starting to get out that lots of guys are saying that are on PREP when they are actually not, they just want to BB and people are continuing to contract the virus. Nothing will change because it doesn’t matter if you change the means of prevention, people will continue to be reckless. If a guy tells you he is on PREP, either use a condom or leave!
Geeker
If it wasn’t being used as an excuse by the bareback crowd to do anything with anyone then I think the drug would be far less controversial.
Clark35
A lot of gay men who are on Truvada think that it’s just an excuse to bareback and parTy like it’s 1975 and that you can have BB sex with anyone and you won’t get HIV, reinfected with the strain of HIV you have, get infected with a new strain, or infect a person who is also HIV+ with a new strain or reinfected with the strain they have, and not to mention get infected with other STDs.
Clark35
All HIV meds including Truvada have not so fun side effects, and are expensive. Using condoms is a lot easier.
John D. Plume
SUPER-INFECTION of HIV does NOT exist.
Please stop passing on wrong information that was discredited a few years ago.
You CANNOT have more than one strain of HIV at the same time (which is what “super-infection” refers to, in terms of microbes).
Co-infection happens–where you can have HIV and HEP–so that terms means more than one infection type.
notevenwrong
@Sportguy, @Geeker, @Clark35,
How long have you used condoms? I used condoms for 23 years. I have paid my dues. Now I am on PrEP and enjoying better sex without anxiety at last.
What is your problem with barebacking, assuming it can be done safely with PrEP? Straight people do it all the time and don’t get insulted for it. NOBODY loves sex with condoms – you have much less sensation and a lot of men have difficulty maintaining an erection that way. A lot of men feel that too much intimacy is lost with condoms. What is your advice for them? To just never have satisfactory sex?
A large majority of gay men don’t use condoms. That is a fact, and continuing to try to marginalize normal regular sexual behavior, as you are trying to do, helps nobody.
Geeker
@notevenwrong: There was a time before HIV and with all the rampant BBing going on these days it’s only a matter of time before something else comes along. Condoms will be more likely to protect you from the unknown than an expensive pill whose long term side effects are still unknown.
DonW
@notevenwrong: This doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing question. I used condoms religiously (pardon the term) for 20+ years and remained negative. I am now on PrEP, and I decide whether or not to use condoms with a given partner, based on what we both determine to be an acceptable risk level in exchange for the reward of pleasure and intimacy.
I never miss a dose of PrEP and am confident I am protected from HIV (because I read peer-reviewed research, not Internet fearmongering). For me the main consideration is the risk of other STDs, so I continue to use condoms with partners I don’t know well. I’ve also had Hepatitis A&B and HPV vaccines, as should any sexually active gay man.
I do not “parTy,” but I also don’t apologize for wanting to enjoy sex playing by rules that are relevant for today, not 1993.
It’s not entirely “safe” to snowboard or scuba dive, either, but people make those choices every day because they want to have fun and feel alive.
redcarpet30
@Geeker: A) That is a fatalistic way of looking at things and B) It can’t get much worse than a disease that attacks the very immune system we have used to fight infection before, whether naturally or with vaccines. It was a high price but HIV has taught scientists a lot.
Cam
All I know is that if you watch the movie “And the Band Played On” the attacks on Condoms and Safe Sex by the Gay Bathouse owners sounds suspiciously similar to the people attacking this drug. Which would make it seem like they have a reason to not want it in use.
It’s a drug, that if somebody takes it, seems to medically protect them from getting HIV, whatever they use, a Condom, this pill, if it works, then why the attacks? People seem far to angry for to not have some other agenda.
Clark35
@John D. Plume: OK so it’s technically co-infection, and that does happen more than most HIV+ gay men want to admit.
@notevenwrong: Personally I’m not even that into anal sex and have only done it as a top to a small number of men who were my partners when they wanted it; but I’m bisexual and I use condoms with women as well and have for decades ever since I became sexually active as an adult.