The pill that prevents HIV
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What is PrEP and how does it work to prevent HIV?
How does that feel as someone who's HIV positive knowing that you won't be able to pass this on to a partner if they're taking it?
Uh I I can't really fully explain how much of a relief that is. It's really it it really has completely changed the way we navigate sex.
The hookup with Hannah Riley Love and
honey eye.
On Triple J.
Warning. Sex and adult themes. It's considered a game changer in preventing HIV transmission. PrEP, the HIV drug. It's recently been approved by Australian regulators. But what does this mean for people living with HIV and their partners? To discuss, we're joined by friend of the show Nick Hollis, who co-founded the Institute of Many. It's a peer-run advocacy group for people living with HIV. And we welcome for the the first time, Doctor Bridget Hare, she's a research fellow at the Kirby Institute and president of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisation. Welcome guys. Thanks for joining us.
Thanks, Hannah. Thank you.
Doctor Bridget, let's start from the start. What
is what is PrEP? PrEP is drugs that you can take to um when you're HIV negative to stop you from acquiring HIV infection. So basically it's a little bit like the pill in con in the concept, like the oral contraceptive pill. The difference is that these are antiretroviral drugs, so they're also used to treat HIV, but if you take them while you negate while you're HIV negative and if you take them every day, they're gonna stop you from acquiring HIV.
And that seems like not unlike the pill, it's gonna have a huge impact on the sexual landscape. I think so. Absolutely,
yeah.
Pretty exciting. Now it's just been approved by uh the therapeutic goods administration, but it's been around for a little while. How long has it been being used in Australia for?
It's
Probably been being used in Australia for a couple of years and that's mostly because um the people who are most at risk of HIV in Australia, gay men, are really, really well informed about what's out there. PrEP was approved in the United States in um July uh twenty twelve and so gay men in Australia have known about it since then. And so wait, it's taken this long to get to here? Oh yeah. It's taken way too long. It's taken way too long. Yeah.
It has taken too long. Definitely. Um but uh the the thing about um I guess gay men, gay culture, uh living with HIV and uh HIV negative gay men is that we've been really resourceful, as Bridget said, um, at keeping ourselves safe. You know, gay men were the ones who were kind of leading the charge on condoms. You know, we weren't just waiting for our doctors to say, Oh, you guys should use condoms and we were like, Oh, good idea. Um, you know, and that kind of form of keeping ourselves safe. ourselves safe.
Nick, do you remember when it first came onto the scene in Australia?
I can recall uh seeing it pop up um on apps and things like that. Absolutely. Apps like grinder? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Uh guys starting to kind of acknowledge that they were on prep. Um there are also uh I remember in my, you know, very thorough social research. Um
You're out there in the field.
Absolutely. Um, meeting guys who were on prep but they wouldn't disclose it on their um on their apps and stuff like that because there was a fair bit of stigma and there still is a little bit of stigma around uh people who choose to go on prep. Why why is that? I think there's a bit of slut shaming around there. It's it's uh you know, it's HIV is such a massive thing that does hang above the gay community, whether you've got it or not. Um there's a lot of anxiety, um and a lot of hang ups and a lot of fear still. So whenever something new comes along, especially something that allows guys, for example, to engage in condomless sex um and still be protected against acquiring HIV, that's a big that's a massive risk.
You think for a community that's like, you know, grown up having condoms, you know, shoved down our throat, so to speak. For uh
Doctor Bridget, you've been studying how PrEP is used with in Australia. What have you been finding?
What I'm finding is that men are really quite invested in this idea of responsibility and they're incredibly invested in community.
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