New drug prevents HIV

AIDS is not a gay man’s disease. AIDS is not a disease from the past. As new statistics are showing, many common beliefs about AIDS are being proven wrong.

Among this new information is a new drug aimed at preventing HIV: pre-exposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP.

“PrEP has been around now for a couple years, it’s just getting off the ground,” said Dr. David Wohl, director of the N.C. AIDS Training and Education Center.

If taken every day, the drug allows the user to have sex without a condom and still prevents the transmission of HIV, much like how the birth control pill prevents pregnancy. PrEP is a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine, two drugs used to treat HIV.

“PrEP comes into play because if you take it almost every day, it really protects you from HIV,” Wohl said. “That’s a pretty dramatic development that we didn’t have 5, 10, 20 years ago.”

While many still don’t know about it, Campus Health Services prescribes PrEP.

“The providers and doctors do follow (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, and if an individual meets the criteria that they would benefit from PrEP, it is prescribed,” said Dr. Mary Covington, executive director of Campus Health.

Despite new developments, HIV is becoming a predominant virus within the gay community once again.

“We really do have an epidemic,” Wohl said. “There is easier access to hookups. That adds more fuel to these kinds of fires.”

He said the resurfacing of the disease has a lot to do with new aspects of hookup culture. With apps like Grindr and Tinder, sex is constantly at the fingertips of anyone looking for it.

“Early in the HIV epidemic, we saw that this is a gay disease,” Wohl said. “That changed as the gay community galvanized with grassroots methods and launched safe-sex campaigns.

“Fast forward 15 years later, and more than half of the people being diagnosed are men having sex with men.”

“These are young men and men of color. These are men who have sex with men who don’t necessarily consider themselves gay. They don’t have the historical memory of losing their friends like the older men do.”

Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt does remember the HIV epidemic affecting UNC’s gay community in the late 1980s.

“When I was an undergraduate, HIV and AIDS was really considered a death sentence,” Kleinschmidt said. “There were people dying all over. Men who would be in their 50s today, they’re just not around anymore. They didn’t survive it.”

Kleinschmidt said during his time at UNC, the gay community wasn’t paralyzed with fear about the disease, but they were cautious.

“I have observed a somewhat lessened sense of urgency in today’s college-age gay man around protecting against HIV contracting,” he said.

Kleinschmidt said HIV might be seen less as a kiss of death today but more as a clinical disorder due to all the treatments available.

“Even though it’s a dangerous disease, it can be controlled,” he said. “It puts HIV and AIDS in a different context than it was when I was an undergrad.”

Wohl said the company producing PrEP didn’t want to heavily market it and appear as if they were taking advantage of people with HIV.

“Doctors don’t know about it. We have a drug that works, but most people that would benefit from it don’t know about it or don’t have access to it,” Wohl said.

Another factor in its slow marketing is the fear that it will steer users away from following other safe sex procedures.

Lauren Martin, president of the Sexuality and Gender Alliance, said the group recognizes the importance of educating the LGBT community about how to prevent diseases.

“We’re just trying to make sure they know,” Martin said. “A lot of the time sex education in high school is not comprehensive to same-sex (couples).”

Wohl said PrEP is for anyone who feels they are at risk.

“It’s not just men. Women can get HIV too. It’s not a man’s pill; it’s a people’s pill.”

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