Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in mainstream media
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I'm probably not as well informed but I only heard about PrEP from one episode of How to Get Away with Murder in season 2. The Asian guy gets HIV and Connor says he'll go on PrEP and it takes… a week or so before they could have sex again.
It's not like HIV is shown on TV shows a lot (it would be horrible if it shows that HIV is THAT prevalent) but how often is PrEP brought up? I haven't watched Looking and I know it wasn't around during the US Queer as Folk.
I haven't seen PrEP at all in any gay themed movies, not that I've been watching a lot.
Needs more PrEP info dissemination.
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Its a relatively new drug which is why it hasn't been mentioned on older programs.
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There has been someting on the news in the netherlands about prep. But they are scared that it is not 100% secure if someone forget to take prep for one or a few days.
i think Prep is a option for some die hard gangbangers. But i hope that some day they find a real cure against hiv.
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Its a relatively new drug which is why it hasn't been mentioned on older programs.
Relatively new? What are you, in 2010? No… Something like Triumeq is relatively new. Truvada (aka PrEP) didn't come out to the market until early 2009. Just to be technically correct.
It didn't reach the "mass" market until late 2010 after patients like me had undergone all the studies and such in an effort to get away from harsher drugs like Sustiva.
But they are scared that it is not 100% secure if someone forget to take prep for one or a few days.
Even if it is taken on time every day, it is still not a guarantee, especially for a "die hard gangbanger" as there is now a strain of HIV that has popped up that is actually resistant to Truvada. In the case o the "die hard gangbanger" (which I fall into the category of), Truvada is even less of a guarantee because of that nature of the increased risk of being introduced to that one particular strain. Also, take into account the number of people with HIV who are on HAART already and maintain an undetectable viral load, which is statistically a safer bet than even a condom. On that note… One day of missing your Truvada won't necessarily do anything, as long as it has been at LEAST a month since you missed your last dose (although the more time you have between missed doses the better, and ideally zero is the target number of missed doses).
Also, I can tell you from first hand experience that the long-term effects of Truvada are questionably worth it, depending on a few factors. In my case, they unfortunately were worth it, as it kept me alive for a number of years, however I still pay for that decision to stay on it for as long as I was. Simply put, it irritates your GI tract, which can cause various things like random nausea and a sudden urge to vomit (although not frequently, just inconveniently and annoyingly, and you're fine after it happens), and my favourite…. It makes for a rather "shitty" situation quite easily. Originally, when I started with Truvada, it was a constant battle with incontinence. The only problem is that when it feels like you're literally pissing out your ass, there's not much you can do to keep it on the down-low, especially when you're say, in the middle of a crowded Canadian Tire store just before Christmas when suddenly, without any warning, "shit happens" (pun intended). Even now, a couple of years free from Truvada, and I still have that side effect quite easily, depending on what I eat. Thankfully, it's not as bad now as it used to be, but it's still a royal pain in the ass. Speaking of which, Truvada has caused me to have another rather unattractive quirk... I can't stop fluffing up a storm in my sleep, and according to a couple of my ex's, it's pretty wicked. I don't mind it because I sleep like a baby right through it, but when you're in a tiny little trailer and you're trying to get near and dear to someone who happens to be a light sleeper, things can get real fun when they threaten to go to bed with a gas mask because of it.... Just sayin'
These are the things that they do NOT tell you in the textbooks folks... I had to learn this the hard way as one of the first experiment patients to be put on this because my other option was Sustiva, which scared the living shit out of me. You either get Lucy in the sky with diamonds dreams, or in my case, you get to go to bed knowing that every night is a night at 1428 Elm Street on Sustiva. Also, having seen what my ex went through with being on Sustiva for 13 years and the way it has fried his brain over time, I didn't have much of a choice but to become one of the first trial patients... I'll be the first to admit, things are nowhere near as bad now as they were even when I was diagnosed, but even being diagnosed at such a key turning point in the science, there are prices we've all had to pay in exchange for our lives.
Just a friendly reality check.
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Dude, I want to give you a comforting hug.
Hang in there. The cure's gotta come soon.
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I just want to clarify, as I'm considering going on PreP… Is it just Truvada, or do you have to take it like PEP... when I took PEP before, they gave me a combination of stuff, if I'm not mistaken Truvada + Issentress (which is freaking expensive btw)...
So my question is: Does PreP only entail one Truvada (the blue one) pill a day?
Sorry, I'm quite ill-informed on the matter as well..
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All HIV meds are expensive because it's profitable to the big pharma industry. Generally, PrEP is usually only Truvada by itself. Isentress doesn't really have any side effects that I can speak of (or at least not in my case), as it's one of the newer meds out there. Truvada on the other hand I will forewarn you can play with your GI tract, even long after you take it. It's one big blue horse pill once daily. While Truvada is known or its effectiveness, it by itself is not as powerful as some of the newer meds out there that are more often used for post exposure treatment like Triumeq. It's Isentress combined with a "cutting edge" new drug in a whole new class of its own. These magic all-in-ones though are even more expensive, and are usually only used for treatment after you're infected.
So… If you are the bottom of the moment, just be mindful that your GI tract can do some very funny things to you, most especially while you're on it, but also even long after you've stopped taking it. Everyone's results will be slightly different in some way, however I can assure you that I know a LOT of "shitty" stories about Truvada. :cheesy2:
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Its a relatively new drug which is why it hasn't been mentioned on older programs.
Relatively new? What are you, in 2010? No… Something like Triumeq is relatively new. Truvada (aka PrEP) didn't come out to the market until early 2009. Just to be technically correct.
It didn't reach the "mass" market until late 2010 after patients like me had undergone all the studies and such in an effort to get away from harsher drugs like Sustiva.Its relatively new in the sense that very few people know about it it has only just came about in the past year in my country. And it looks like it will still only be available through private insurance or buying in my country because its too expensive for the nationalised public health system. Those side effects sound nasty and I hope that one day a drug without these side effects or even an actual cure is found and distributed rather then safeguarding the profits of pharmaceutical companies.
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In HBO's "Looking" , second season.
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There is some speculation that there may be a cure in the works, but I've heard about things like this before, and although they looked promising, they fell a little flat.
Also, sadly, there are some people who are known commonly as "denialists", who do not help in any way with the advancement of research, as they deny that HIV even exists in the first place. I have questioned many of them in my experiences in dealing with them, and none of them seem to like questions that I raise. Their first problem is they refer to information that was released in the mid 1990's, and as we all know, there is a LOT that has become known since that time, which raises a number of control based questions about their study results.
So… Only time will tell where things go from here.
The funny thing is that they claim that the basic principle that we understand HIV is simply a "theory"... None of them like when I ask them if they believe in gravity, and when the answer yes, point out that even gravity by scientific definition is "just a theory". So I'll as them how they can be so willing to believe in "just a theory" when it comes to gravity, but when it comes to something else, it's "just a theory" and it "hasn't been proven"... Technically NEITHER HAS GRAVITY!! Not in an exact quantification that can be scientifically validated with hard evidence anyway... But yet, here we are with the belief that what goes up, must come down. When I ask how the "theory of gravity" is any different than the "theory of HIV" as they so delicately put it, not one of them could ever tender up an answer for me.
