PrEP fact sheet released to raise awareness on HIV prevention method

PrEP fact sheet released to raise awareness on HIV prevention method

LIVING Positive Victoria has released a new fact-sheet on pre-exposure prophalyxis, commonly known as PrEP, which highlights its development in in Australia and aims to raise awareness of it a HIV prevention method.

Due to the increase of requests and purchases of PrEP, Talking to Your HIV-negative Friends and Partners about PrEP acts as a tool to explain recent policy advice and evidence from overseas studies on the drug.

Created in partnership with the Victorian AIDS Council, the resource provides information, advice and suggestions for Australians considering the use of PrEP.

Daniel MacPhail, PrEP advocate and a participant on the Victorian PrEP trial, said the resource was an excellent way to encourage the community to be talking about safe sexual practices.

“PrEP gives negative guys real choice in terms of being able to opt in to protection against HIV transmission, freedom from the anxiety and fear that riddles us all after what should be excellent sex, and relinquishes the responsibility from those HIV positive guys we sleep with for staying negative,” he said.

“It gives us the liberty to say ‘I am protected, therefore your status doesn’t matter to me, therefore I’m not scared of you or HIV’.”

While community awareness for the drug for use as HIV prevention is growing, the resource also aims to educate LGBT and straight people alike on safe sexual practice.

HIV-positive actor Sebastian Robinson, who is one of the fact-sheet’s promoters, said he believed it to be a fantastic tool for education.

“Each step towards increased awareness and access to not just PrEP itself, but the information around it strengthens not only the community but the individual: power through information, and power through informed action,” he said.

“Stigma is the one of the main things that separates us and this resource gives me added tools and value in communicating with family, friends and loved ones.”

To access the fact-sheet, visit: livingpositivevictoria.org.au/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=188983

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