CDC Wants Only High-Risk MSM Using PrEP

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have some caveats about pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, which was recently found to dramatically lower HIV rates for men who sleep with men.

CDC recently issued their first official guidelines on PrEP treatment after news broke in November that the therapy, involving the daily use of the AIDS drug Truvada, helps keep some people HIV-negative. The federal agency wants only high-risk gay and bisexual men to utilize the therapy, which has not yet been approved for use by HIV-negative individuals by the Food and Drug Administration. Federal officials have concerns that more widespread use of PrEP treatment will encourage unsafe practices like the use of the therapy as a precursor to unsafe sex or HIV-negative people substituting other pills for Truvada.

It’s imperative doctors who prescribe PrEP treatment—which costs about $1,000 a month—counsel their high-risk patients and urge them to be regularly tested, according to the CDC.

"Until the safety and efficacy of PrEP is determined in trials now under way with populations at high risk for HIV acquisition by other routes of transmission, PrEP should be considered only for men who have sex with men," the guidelines say, according to Reuters.