What Healthcare Providers Need to Know About the New HIV PrEP Guidelines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 34,800 people were newly infected with HIV in 2019, and 1.2 million people in the country are living with HIV.^[1] CDC released Preexposure Prophylaxis for the Prevention of HIV Infection in the United States — 2021 Update: A Clinical Practice Guideline on December 8, 2021. This update gives healthcare providers the latest guidance on prescribing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—a powerful tool for HIV prevention—to their patients.

If you are a licensed provider, you can prescribe PrEP to prevent HIV infection in your patients. CDC estimates that 1.2 million Americans could potentially benefit from PrEP.^[1] Read on to review the new recommendations and key changes in the updated PrEP guidelines.

New Recommendations

Tell all your sexually active adult and adolescent patients that PrEP can protect them from getting HIV (Grade IIIB). This will not only increase the number of people who know about PrEP but may help your patients overcome embarrassment or stigma that could prevent them from talking to you about behaviors that put them at risk of getting HIV. You should also offer PrEP to anyone who asks for it. Prescribe cabotegravir (CAB) injections — approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021 — as PrEP for your sexually active adult and adolescent patients