SF Might Distribute Free Truvada

San Francisco might become the world's first city to distribute free Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via Huffington Post:

Supervisor David Campos announced plans to make PrEP cheap or free for residents in statements on his Facebook. “This coming Tuesday, I will introduce a measure to allocate funds for navigators to educate patients about PrEP, and provide subsidies to San Franciscans who cannot afford the life saving medication,” he said Thursday, a day after suggesting San Francisco can set a national example: “By making PrEP available to all regardless of income, we could set the tone for the rest of the country in how to effectively eradicate a disease that claimed the lives of so many of our loved ones.” At the rally on Thursday, [Supervisor Scott] Wiener emphasized how prevalent HIV remains, pointing to statistics that show there are 400 new HIV infections a year in San Francisco, 50,000 nationwide and more than 2 million around the world. “I'm sick of meeting people 18, 19, 20, 21 years old who are [HIV] positive. We know that this is not necessary,” he said. “I think a lot of times, especially in the mainstream, there’s this view that somehow HIV is over, that the epidemic is somehow resolved, that everything is okay, and we know that that’s not true."

Most major HIV/AIDS organizations have endorsed the use of Truvada but all caution that adherence to the daily regimen is critical to maintaining its preventive function.