The Orange County Health Department is offering prescriptions for pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP — a preventative medication for individuals who are at high risk for exposure to HIV.
Dr. Christopher Hurt, a clinical assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine, said PrEP works by preventing a permanent HIV infection before a person comes in contact with the virus.
“It’s kind of like having a shield inside your cells that helps protect them from HIV infection,” Hurt said. “Rather than having a physical barrier like a condom, it’s like having a chemical barrier.”
Stacy Shelp, spokeswoman for the health department, said the growing rate of HIV infection in Orange County was a significant reason for introducing PrEP.
“Obviously, we don’t have as high an incidence as some other larger counties, but we have seen kind of a consistently growing rate of infection,” Shelp said. “In 2011, we had 13 cases. In 2012, it was 15 cases. In 2013, it was 17 cases. Every case is one case too many.”
According to a press release from the Orange County Health Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that when taken consistently, PrEP reduced the risk of HIV infection in high-risk individuals by up to 92 percent.
The health department defines high-risk individuals as couples in which one partner is infected with HIV and the other is not, men who have sex with men and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors or have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection within the last six months, heterosexually active men and women who do not use condoms regularly and people who use IV drugs and share needles.
Shelp said any person who comes to the sexually transmitted disease clinic and is willing to have the appropriate counseling, blood tests and follow-up work is eligible for the program.
