AHF Highlights “Reaching Common Ground on PrEP” in New National Ad Campaign

AHF’s ad campaign, which offers principles for the administration of PrEP for the community's consideration, starts Aug. 19^th in newspapers and magazines in seven markets or cities nationwide: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, DC and South Florida

“At the end of the day, PrEP is an individual option not a general solution.” -Michael Weinstein, President, AHF

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting Wednesday, August 19^th, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will launch a new national ad campaign, “Reaching Common Ground on PrEP,” in which AHF offers principles for the administration of PrEP for the community's consideration. In the ad, AHF puts forth eleven separate principles for the administration and use of Gilead Science’s AIDS treatment Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention.

AHF ad notes, “A sometimes emotional debate over the proper use of Truvada for prevention of HIV has now been raging for the last several years. Based on the current available scientific data, AIDS Healthcare Foundation offers the following principles for the administration of PrEP for the community's consideration.” The ad then itemizes eleven principles or guidelines for consideration by individuals considering PrEP as well as for medical providers who may be contemplating prescribing it for their patients. Some of the key principles outlined by AHF for the administration of PrEP include:

• Those who have not and will not use condoms and are having multiple sexual partners are the best candidates for PrEP.
• Those who use condoms with every partner do not require PrEP.
• The decision to begin PrEP should be thoroughly discussed with one's medical provider—including adherence, which should be monitored closely—and patients should be counseled to take the drug daily.

“At the end of the day, PrEP is an individual option not a general solution,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “We believe PrEP should be prescribed on a case-by-case basis by medical providers working in conjunction with their patients, not as a community-wide public health intervention strategy, as the CDC recommended last summer when it recommended that 500,000 high-risk individuals go on PrEP.”

In May 2014, the CDC recommended that 500,000 men-who-have-sex-with-men and other high-risk individuals go on PrEP, despite the fact that data from nearly all major PrEP studies do not support such large-scale public deployment of PrEP due to medication adherence issues: Even in carefully monitored clinical trials demonstrating the drug’s clinical efficacy, many study participants simply did NOT take the medication every day as prescribed.

AHF’s “Reaching Common Ground on PrEP,” ad will run in newspapers and magazines in seven (7) markets or cities nationwide and hit the streets this week: South Florida (‘South Florida Gay News’ and ‘Florida Agenda,’ issue date: August 19^th); New York (in ‘Gay City News,’ issue date: August 20^th); Los Angeles (‘Frontiers Newsmagazine,’ issue date: August 20^th); San Francisco (‘Bay Area Reporter,’ issue date: August 20^th); Dallas (‘Dallas Voice,’ issue date: August 20^th); Atlanta (‘GA Voice’ online issue date: August 21^st) and Washington, DC (‘The Washington Blade’ issue date: August 20^th and ‘Metro Weekly,’ issue date: August 21^st).

To view the ‘Reaching Common Ground on PrEP’ and review all eleven of AHF’s suggested principles on PrEP, click here: http://www.aidshealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Common-Ground-on-PrEP-Frontiers.pdf

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 451,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.