San Francisco is estimated to have over 6,000 PrEP users

San Francisco is estimated to have over 6,000 PrEP users, while approximately 40,000 people in the US are taking the drug.

The majority of the users are gay and bisexual men, Bay Area Reporter writes.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drug Truvada can reduce people’s chances of being infected with HIV by up to 99 percent, if taken daily.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Strut sexual health program celebrated its 1,000th PrEP prescription last month, with Strut nursing director Pierre-Cédric Crouch saying: “Hitting 1,000 enrollments in our PrEP health program has highlighted the tremendous demand for PrEP in San Francisco.

“Our clients have been returning to the clinic with happier and healthier relationships and sex lives. We’re delighted to share that experience with them.”

The goal of Strut’s clinic is to help clients with their finances by working with navigators and to allow people to have easy access to PrEP with or without insurance.

Navigator Jayne Gagliano said: “Most clients making less than $58,000 annually pay nothing out of pocket for Truvada.

“Our goal is helping uninsured and insured people access this powerful prevention tool for little or no cost to them, and we’ve been very successful.”

“As a partner in San Francisco’s Getting to Zero consortium, we are helping lead the way to zero new HIV infections by empowering people to proactively protect their health – with our PrEP health program as an integral part of that strategy,” added San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s new CEO Joe Hollendoner.

“We are delighted to reach this significant milestone of 1,000 enrolled clients and look forward to seeing our program continue to grow and meet the sexual health needs of the community.”

Earlier this month, NHS England ruled out a large scale roll-out for PrEP, instead funding a further two-year trial at “early implementer” sites.

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