Starting today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends all clinicians talk to their sexually active adolescent and adult patients about HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) at least once and prescribe the prevention pills to anyone who asks for them, whether or not you understand their need for it.
"PrEP is a part of good primary care," Demetre Daskalakis, MD, CDC's director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, told Medscape Medical News. "Listening to people and what they need, as opposed to assessing what you think they need, is a seismic shift in how PrEP should be offered."
The expanded recommendation comes as part of the 2021 update to the US Public Health Service's PrEP prescribing guidelines. It's the third iteration since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first HIV prevention pill in 2012, and the first to include guidance on how to prescribe and monitor an injectable version of PrEP, which the FDA may approve as early as this month.
Today, there are two pills, Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, Gilead Sciences and generic) and Descovy (emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide, Gilead Sciences). The pills have been found to be up to 99% effectivein preventing HIV acquisition. The new injectable cabotegravir appears to be