Teens Invent STD-Detecting Condom

Buzzfeed reports:

Creators Muaz Nawaz, Daanyaal Ali, and Chirag Shah, from London’s Isaac Newton Academy, wanted to “make detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before” without invasive testing. Their invention, cleverly named the S.T.EYE, nabbed them the top health innovation prize at the city’s TeenTech Awards, which are intended to promote science, engineering, and technology in schools. At the competition, groups of kids ranging in age from 11 to 16 attempt to create “technology to make life better, simpler or easier.”The condom uses a built-in indicator that changes to a different color depending on the bacteria or infection it detects. The students said it may glow green for chlamydia, yellow for herpes, purple for human papillomavirus, or blue for syphilis. Molecules in the condom attach to the bacteria of common STIs, causing the contraception to fluoresce in low light.

More from Daily Dot:

It’s unclear as to whether the condom detects both the wearer’s and the recipient’s STI statuses, or just the recipient’s. If the latter, that poses some obvious concerns for heterosexual women or gay men who take a passive role during sex. It’s also worth noting that the S.T. Eye has yet to actually come to fruition; in fact, a TeenTech representative was careful to say in an email to the Daily Dot that the team’s idea was “very much a concept and... not a finalized design.” All skepticism aside, though, considering the stigma associated with condom use in our society, it’s awesome to see a group of teenage boys trying to make safe sex cool by trying to reimagine the concept behind the traditional barrier method. Especially when most teenage boys are too busy trying to avoid wearing condoms to begin with.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

LOS ANGELES: Ninth Circuit Court Upholds Law Mandating Condoms In Porn

Via the Associated Press:

A Los Angeles County ordinance requiring actors in pornographic films to use condoms does not violate the porn industry's First Amendment rights of free expression, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The decision from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the industry's contention that having actors use condoms would interfere with a film's fantasy element by subjecting viewers to real-word concerns like pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. For the First Amendment argument to apply, the court ruled, there would have to be a great likelihood that a film's audience would understand that intended message. "Here, we agree with the district court that, whatever unique message plaintiffs might intend to convey by depicting condomless sex, it is unlikely that viewers of adult films will understand that message," said Judge Susan P. Graber, writing for the panel's majority.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein called the ruling a "total vindication." The AHF was the bill's primary backer. A similar bill to implement the rule statewide died last year in a state Senate committee. Weinstein has vowed to place the issue to a public ballot if the bill is not resurrected.

New Anti-PrEP Ad From AIDS Healthcare

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation continues its campaign against PrEP and Truvada today with the above open letter to the CDC which is being published in major newspapers. Writing for the New York Times, Josh Barro notes that the AHF is fighting this battle alone:

“There’s no large controversy; there is one loud voice,” said Charles King, the president of the H.I.V. nonprofit Housing Works and a co-chairman of an anti-H.I.V. task force appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. Mr. King called the A.H.F. ad “a direct attack on New York State’s efforts to end AIDS as an epidemic.” The growing pro-PrEP chorus includes government bodies like the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; various state and local health departments, including in New York and San Francisco; and most H.I.V.-related nonprofits that have taken a stance. Mr. Cuomo has made PrEP one of three planks in his anti-AIDS plan.

Mr. Weinstein’s vociferous opposition to PrEP has made him perhaps the most hated man in the AIDS business. “I consider him a menace to H.I.V. prevention,” said Peter Staley, a veteran activist who also serves on the Cuomo task force. James Loduca, the vice president for public affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, compared him to a “climate-change denialist.” For his part, Mr. Weinstein insists he’s not really alone. He says “a majority” of H.I.V. experts he speaks with privately agree with his view that PrEP is an ineffective public health intervention, but they do not want to talk publicly.

Embiggen the image to read the text.

Porno Pete: The Government Should Stop Promoting The Use Of Condoms

"The question is, if we know what behavior is causing these diseases, why don't we encourage people not to practice the behaviors? Homosexuality, especially among men, is vastly overrepresented in HIV cases, so the government should be taking steps to discourage men and boys from practicing homosexual behavior.  We're in a situation now where the government is encouraging groups to pass out condoms at homosexual clubs, as if that's going to stop the disease. I mean, basically, we've done everything but publicly discourage men from practicing homosexuality. Instead the CDC goes around talking about stigma and 'homophobia.' This is really a politically protected class of disease because of its association with homosexuality, and that's wrong." - Peter LaBarbera, quoted by the American Family Association site OneNewsNow.

SYDNEY: Giant Condom Riles Anti-Gays

A giant condom wrapped over a monument in a Sydney park has enraged anti-gay activists.

The 18m fluoro covering was slipped onto the Hyde Park Obelisk overnight as part of an advertising campaign commissioned by an agency for HIV prevention among gay men. Australian Christian Lobby director and outdoor advertising lobbyist Wendy Francis has spoken out on the stunt, telling news.com.au it was “disgusting” and “completely inappropriate”. “My position on this is always that the government but also the community we have responsibility to our children,” she said. “There is a time and place for talking to children, and an age appropriate time for parents to talk to children about condoms. Parents do not want to be forced into a situation where they have to explain something that’s not relevant.”

The AIDS Council of New South Wales says the condom will remain in place for the next week.

New PrEP Study Upends Edict That Med Must Be Taken Daily To Be Effective

Gus Caims reports at AIDS Map:

In an extraordinary development, a second European scientific trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has had its randomised phase closed early due to high effectiveness, just two weeks after the UK PROUD trial did exactly the same thing. The investigators of the IPERGAY trial, which has six sites in France and one in Canada, announced today a “Significant breakthrough in the fight against HIV and AIDS” because IPERGAY had successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of its PrEP regimen.

IPERGAY’s early closure is significant not only because it adds confirmation that PrEP can be highly effective, but because it was testing an innovative, intermittent (“on-demand”) PrEP regimen. In this study, participants did not take PrEP daily, but only when they anticipated having sex. The regimen involved taking two pills of Truvada (tenofovir + emtricitabine) twelve hours before anticipated sex and then, if sex happened, two separate one-pill doses the following day. This extends the versatility of PrEP and provides an alternative regimen to daily dosing.

IPERGAY was run by the French national AIDS research institute, ANRS, and began in February 2012. It randomised gay men at high risk of HIV infection to the Truvada regimen or to a placebo – a protocol that caused some controversy among activists who felt studies such as iPrEx had already demonstrated that PrEP worked. All participants were also offered a package of measures including “personalised and frequent” counselling, repeated HIV testing, screening and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis B vaccination, condoms and lubricant. At the time of closure of its randomised phase, the trial had approximately 400 participants.

Perhaps it should go without saying, but Truvada users should remain on their daily dosing regimen for the time being and until after this study's results have been replicated and endorsed by multiple major HIV/AIDS experts. That said, the prospect of an intermittent dosing regimen versus a lifetime daily dosing schedule of a medication whose long-term side effects remain unclear - that is indeed appealing. However it seems that "anticipating sex," for many gay men, would require daily dosing anyway. I vaguely recall that sex can sometimes happen without anticipation, certainly much faster than 12-hours notice.

UPDATE: Via renowned activist Peter Staley's Facebook page, the chart below indicates that a 12-hour notice is not required. The first notation reads: "1st dose: 2 tablets, Max. 24h - Min 2h before first sexual relation."

UDPATE II: The source of the chart above and much more about this study can be found here.

CDC Launches PrEP Hotline For Doctors

After reports that relatively few healthcare providers are prescribing Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, the CDC has launched a free hotline to answer their questions.

PrEPline is aimed toward physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants providing primary care to uninfected patients with high risk. The phone service is staffed by experienced clinicians and offers written and online checklists, guidelines and other informational materials. “PrEP is a powerful HIV prevention tool that has the potential to alter the course of the US epidemic if its use is increased among patients who are at substantial risk for HIV infection,” Dawn Smith, MD, MPH, of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the CDC, said in a statement. “By offering free, expert advice based on the new federal guidelines to clinicians, including those who may not have experience prescribing antiretroviral medications, PrEPline will ensure clinicians across the country have timely access to the information they need to get PrEP into the hands of their patients.” PrEPline is open to calls from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, and can be reached at 855-448-7737.

PrEP has been recommended for uninfected bisexual and gay men by the CDC, the World Health Organization, and almost all HIV/AIDS organizations. However the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which bills itself as the "largest community-based HIV/AIDS medical provider in the nation," continues to fiercely oppose PrEP via print and online campaigns. AHF president Micheal Weinstein has characterized Truvada as a "party drug" for promiscuous barebackers and has pointed out that strict adherence to a daily dosing regimen is critical to the drug's efficacy. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

NYC Takes PrEP Campaign To Grindr

The New York City Department of Health has launched a PrEP campaign on Grindr, Scruff, and social media sites. And of course, the ever combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation is furious.

A stigma persists that Truvada is a "party pill" -- an attitude shared by some doctors who scold patients about their sexual practices and won't prescribe it, said Anthony Hayes, a spokesman for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, which backs PrEP. The journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that 74 percent of surveyed clinicians back PrEP, yet only 9 percent had prescribed it. Enter Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the health department's new assistant commissioner for HIV/AIDS control and prevention. Previously a top AIDS doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital, he is a self-described "gay health warrior." "There's not a lot of doctors who can say, 'I've done thousands of HIV [blood] tests with my hands in dark sex clubs,' " he said. "I have done that."

The city is spending about $500,000 to encourage PrEP, with outreach to doctors and ads on Facebook, Twitter and hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff. Says one ad: "Share the Night, Not HIV." Among those in Daskalakis' focus: young black and Latino men, who studies find at higher risk because of the amount of the virus in the population and health care disparities. The city's PrEP push is misguided, said Michael Weinstein, head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which serves 200,000 patients globally. "The first order of business in medical ethics is 'do no harm,' and what the New York City Health Department's doing is doing harm, because there are people who are going to take this drug intermittently, who are going to think they're protected, who are going to not be protected," Weinstein said.

Fairly strict adherence to daily dosing is critical to maintaining Truvada's effectiveness as a preventive.

AHF Launches Anti-PrEP Ad Campaign

The combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation is launching a print ad campaign against the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via press release:

AHF’s ‘PrEP Facts’ ad campaign educating the public about adherence issues and PrEP initially started running this week in a few newspapers, magazines and online outlets in California and will continue and expand to six outlets in California and five news outlets in South Florida over the next week. AHF’s campaign also comes on the heels of recent—and what AHF believes are misguided—recommendations by both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) for the widespread scale up and implementation of the problematic HIV prevention strategy.

“The eight major studies show the scientific data do not support the large-scale use of Truvada as a community-wide public health intervention to prevent transmission of HIV,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Medication adherence is the primary problem: Even in carefully monitored clinical trials, in which people were counseled monthly, had blood samples drawn and were even paid to participate, many study participants simply did NOT take Truvada every day as prescribed. As such, we want the public to know that the government-sanctioned widespread scale up of PrEP appears to be a public health disaster in the making.”

The ads will run in numerous LGBT, mainstream, and alternative papers including Frontiers, South Florida Gay News, Los Angeles Daily News, Miami New Times, Hotspots, Oakland Post, and Florida Agenda.

LOS ANGELES: Porn Shoot Permits Drop 90% After Condom Use Mandate

In November 2012, Los Angeles County voters approved a bill that mandates the use of condoms in all porn video shoots. The Associated Press reports today that local applications for porn filming permits dropped by more than 90% last year. But that doesn't mean that condom-less filming isn't still taking place.

So where are those hundreds of films available for instant download on the Internet coming from? Many are still coming from right here, say industry officials, acknowledging that when Los Angeles County voters cracked down on filmmakers in November 2012 with an ordinance requiring that actors use condoms, quite a few filmmakers went underground. "A lot are simply shooting in out-of-the-way places where they won't be caught," says Mark Kernes, senior editor at Adult Video News, which tracks industry trends. "Normally it's in people's homes who are willing to rent them out for a day. Sometimes it's out in the woods. There are vacation cabins far away from anything that you can shoot a movie at."

Others have traveled outside of Los Angeles County, either to neighboring counties or sometimes even out of state. Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an industry advocacy group, said she knows of a handful that have moved to Las Vegas, although none want to be mentioned by name for fear of bringing condom activists after them. Although a few porn producers do require that actors use condoms, the majority do not, saying fans have made it clear they don't want to see them. Wherever the filmmakers are working now, only 20 have applied for permits so far this year, according to Film LA, which issues them. Last year 40 adult filmmakers took out permits, compared with 485 in 2012, the last year before the ordinance took effect.

RELATED: The Los Angeles County ordinance was spearheaded by the combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Today the AHF issued a press release declaring that it has filed an OSHA complaint against a San Francisco-based porn company that is filming in Nevada.

“Under the guise of his various Kink and Kink.com, adult film businesses and brands, owner Peter Acworth, thinks he and his companies can simply ignore the Federal OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard with regard to required condom use in his adult film productions shot in Nevada. This new complaint in Nevada is based on the simple fact that they cannot hide from federal law there, or anywhere in the U.S.,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “When we first proposed the Los Angeles City bill, the industry said they’d film in other L.A. cities. When we proposed Measure B for L.A. County, the industry said they’d film in other counties. And when we proposed AB 1576, the industry said they’d film outside of California. Here, Mr. Acworth will no doubt find out that both Nevada and Federal OSHA statutes apply as well. Are workers in Nevada any less entitled to protection from harm than those in California?”

ALSO RELATED: This week the AHF sued the city of San Francisco for blocking its plans to open a pharmacy in the Castro. According to the AHF, local AIDS activists are behind the denial because they are furious with the AHF for opposing the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive.

"At the behest of San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, The City rammed through, at lightning speed, an interim zoning law specifically targeting AIDS Healthcare Foundation," claimed Laura Boudreau, chief of operations for AHF. "The clear and sole purpose of that action was to discourage the organization from relocating and opening a nonprofit safety-net clinic and pharmacy in the Castro." But City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey called the civil rights violation charge "absurd." "AHF is asking the court to find a constitutional right to build whatever it wants wherever it wants, and that's just not something courts have allowed," Dorsey said.

Boudreau claims the motivation for The City's actions came from the foundation's position on PrEP -- an HIV treatment drug which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have advocated for as a preventative tool, but which the group opposes as a widespread HIV prevention tool, arguing its efficacy is debatable. While a local HIV activist said the AHF's position on HIV prevention is not popular among many in San Francisco, he and Wiener point out that the main issue with the group, which has 33 locations nationwide, is that it operates a chain. The city's formula retail rules define chain stores as any with 11 or more locations. "AHF tried to game our formula retail law by tweaking its name and then claiming it wasn't actually formula retail," Wiener said. "Under AHF's approach, any chain store could come into San Francisco, tweak its name, and claim that it isn't formula retail."

Mother Coco Knows Best

(Via Towleroad)

New Condom Idea: The Galactic Cap

Via the LA Weekly:

Condoms are a need, not a want. So why not make them as minimal as possible? Brands have tried with the ultra-thin this and the super-sensitive that. But, so far, your options are to place an obvious barrier between you and your lover ... or not. Condoms are a huge issue in adult video, which is fighting mandatory prophylactic rules because, the industry says, consumers don't want to see them. It turns out that an L.A. area inventor just might have a solution: Charles Powell's Galactic Cap is a prophylactic device that goes only on the very tip of the penis. It sounds like a challenge to the laws of physics, but Powell says it works. It's a two-piece product that uses a U-shaped base comprised of a polyurethane adhesive film and a cap that sticks to that film. The base can be put on hours or even days before sex, and it allows users to urinate or even shower.

The condom is yet to be approved by the FDA.

(Tipped by JMG reader Bill)

Op-Ed Of The Day

Writing for the New York Times, Donald McNeil speculates that the use of Truvada as an HIV preventive might trigger a new "sexual revolution." The piece begins:

Pretend it’s 1960, and the Food and Drug Administration has just done something startling. It has taken a drug it had previously approved for infertility — brand name Enovid — and approved it for the opposite use: birth control. That pill — soon simply the Pill — triggered the sexual revolution. But not overnight. Doctors at first resisted giving it to unmarried women. Women were shy about carrying evidence that they actually planned to have sex. Pioneering feminists like Margaret Sanger and Katharine D. McCormick braved vilification to champion it.

Madison Avenue chimed in: Ads featured Andromeda, the princess of Greek mythology, nude and breaking free of her chains. Some of the dire predictions of moralists did come true: Gonorrhea rates among women rose. Side effects like blood clots emerged. But the revolution stuck. For gay men — not to mention millions of Africans, drug users and others at risk for contracting H.I.V. — the world is again at such a moment. The F.D.A. has taken a drug — Truvada — that was approved for H.I.V. treatment in 2004, and approved it for prevention, a use called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

Read the full essay.

Petition Of The Day

Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2014 Eric Leue has launched a petition calling for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to remove CEO Michael Weinstein for characterizing Truvada as a "party drug" rather than as a daily HIV preventive.

This petition is not about how Weinstein or we personally feel about HIV PrEP. This petition is about whether we, the people, should be allowed access to accurate information, free of stigma and discrimination. Since 1980, HIV and its prevention has been framed in moral terms, and the people carrying the virus blamed. The head of our largest AIDS service organization should know that HIV prevention is not “a party.” With our signatures to remove Michael Weinstein as CEO and President of the AHF, we encourage the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to reconnect with the public to be able to continue their important work hand in hand with the communities they serve.

The FDA approved Truvada for HIV prevention nearly two years ago, but relatively few gay men are using it for that purpose due (in part) to the "Truvada whore" stigma. Click on the post link for Truvada for more stories on this issue.

More On #TruvadaWhore

The Associated Press has published a lengthy examination of the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, which is opposed by some activists and the often combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

It's the Truvada conundrum: A drug hailed as a lifesaver for many people infected by HIV is at the heart of a rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists and health professionals over its potential for protecting uninfected men who engage in gay sex without using condoms. Many doctors and activists see immense promise for such preventive use of Truvada, and are campaigning hard to raise awareness of it as a crucial step toward reducing new HIV infections, which now total about 50,000 a year in the U.S. Recent efforts range from think-tank forums and informational websites to a festive event at a New York City bar featuring popular drag queens. Yet others — despite mounting evidence of Truvada's effectiveness — say such efforts are reckless, tempting some condom users to abandon that layer of protection and exposing them to an array of other sexually transmitted infections aside from HIV. "If something comes along that's better than condoms, I'm all for it, but Truvada is not that," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Let's be honest: It's a party drug."

Truvada costs about $13K a year and its use as a preventive is covered by most insurance plans. Hit the link for much more from the AP.

Matt Barber's Site: AIDS Patients Should Sue Groups That Promote Safer Sex

In a post on Matt Barber's website, infamous anti-Kinsey activist Judith Reisman today declares that AIDS patients should file a class action lawsuit against "condom pushers" because the FDA has never approved condom use for anal sex.

The reality is that condoms are manufactured and approved every day for natural, vaginal sex, not anal “sex.” They are not effectively designed to protect from disease those people who engage in sodomy. Such a lawsuit should target the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Planned Parenthood and a myriad of teachers and school systems, too many to count, that have taught that anal “sex” (traditionally termed “sodomy” or “buggery” under British-based legal codes) as not so different than natural coitus. The result of a class action suit should be the requirement of a label, a la cigarette packs, that states: “This condom has never been approved by the FDA for penile/anal intercourse.” Due to the lies that have told, people who practiced sodomy are under the tragically mistaken notion that a condom is effective protection from disease. Those who have believed this lie and have contracted AIDS or an STD (and the loved ones of those who’ve lost their lives) have a cause of legal action.

Reisman's post comes in support of crackpot Hawaii state Rep. Bob "Crazy Eyes II" McDermott, who is leading a campaign against sex education in public schools.

RELATED: Last month Men's Journal reported that a Los Angeles-based company founded by an HIV+ gay man is working to get FDA approval for an condom that would be marketed for anal use.

Bay Area Health Officials Create Fake Grindr Profiles To Promote Safer Sex

Health officials from San Mateo County have created fake Grindr profiles in a campaign to promote safer sex among the hook-up app's users. Via the Bay Area Reporter:

Darryl Lampkin, prevention supervisor for the STD/HIV program at the county's health department, said last week that the efforts have enabled staff to reach far more people than they had been able to in the county, which is just south of San Francisco but includes no physical venues such as gay bars or community centers where outreach can be focused. Lampkin, who spoke Thursday, March 13 to members of San Francisco's HIV Prevention Planning Council, added that staffers don't initiate contact with others on the site and the profiles contain minimal information. Instead, they respond when someone expresses interest in the profile. Questioned about ethics of the program, Lampkin asked if it's more unethical to "ignore" the application's potential as an outreach tool or "to give them information about HIV and STDs and save them from suffering." "We're not deceiving people," he said. "We also know other people have a profile up that's not them," and there have been "very few" negative reactions.

The paper has criticized the program in an editorial:

It's skirting the line between deception and forthrightness. We're not sure how we would feel if we were using an app like Grindr and suddenly were told the person we contacted was a health worker who wanted us to get tested. But we know that in this social media age, all bets are off in terms of knowing who you're actually communicating with. [snip] But Lampkin, who is gay, can't say – as he did – that the county isn't deceiving people. Using altered stock photos and creating fake profiles is deception, no matter how effective the program is. San Francisco health officials told us that they have no plans to operate a similar program and that's a good thing.

NYC Launches "KYNG" Sized Condoms

The NYC Department of Health, which annually distributes millions of free condoms, used Valentine's Day to announce the launch of a larger size.

The changes to the city-sponsored condoms came from direct feedback, she said. “In the past year, we have participated in over 600 community events, and we’ve reached more than 25,000 New Yorkers, and they’ve told us that they wanted to see an updated look, and also to have a larger-size branded condom as part of our repertoire,” Cutler said. The “KYNG” condom and the new wrapper will be available throughout the city this summer. The department said the NYC Condom program has been widely successful in promoting safer sex. The department emphasized that when used correctly and consistently, condoms are about 98 percent effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies, and offer effective protection against STDs.

The condoms are made and sold by Lifestyles under the same name.

Come Together For Valentine's Day

The Independent reports on a new spot from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance which airs tonight on Britain's Channel 4.

The 60-second television spot, which has been described as one of the most provocative ads to be screened on British television, has already started tongues wagging amongst industry experts, and looks set to get pulses racing as well when it's broadcast at 11.45pm and 12.05am on Friday night - the only terrestrial showing it will receive. The aim of the raunchy advert is not to shock, however, Awo Ablo, Director of External Relations at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance explains: "It's arresting. Our motivation for the advert comes from something that we've known for a couple of years now. Our polling says that people, internationally, don't care about HIV/Aids." "We hope the advert educates in a way that it is joyful and expresses what we feel about safe sex: that it is something to be enjoyed and something that helps save lives."

Probably not office-friendly.

NEW YORK: State Endorses Truvada For Daily Use As HIV Preventive

The New York state Department of Health has officially endorsed daily use of the Gilead medication Truvada for the prevention of HIV infection.

After months of anticipation, the Health Department's AIDS Institute released thorough clinical guidelines for pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, which is a daily dose of HIV medication that people who are HIV-negative but at-risk of contracting the virus can take to drastically reduce their chance of infection. The drug, known by its prescription name Truvada, can reduce the chance of infection by as much as 73 percent, according to studies funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. However, the AIDS Institute stressed that PrEP alone was not enough to prevent new infections. "PrEP should not be offered as a sole intervention for HIV prevention. PrEP should only be prescribed as part of a comprehensive prevention plan," the report says.

Preventive use of Truvada, while supported by most HIV/AIDS groups including ACT UP and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, remains controversial. In particular, the Los Angeles based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has long battled against the preventive use of Truvada. In July 2012, when the drug was first approved for daily preventive use, the AHF accused both Gilead and the FDA of "negligence bordering the equivalence of malpractice which will sadly result in new infections, drug resistance and serious side effects among many, many people." Last August the AHF declared victory in their Freedom of Information Act request which sought proof that Gilead colluded with the FDA on "what to say to get their unfavorable drug trial results spun in such a way that the FDA deemed them sufficient to approve the drug."

Truvada retails at an annual cost of up to $14,000 and its use as a preventive is not yet covered by all insurance plans. Today's guideline from the state recommends that AIDS groups focus on identifying the most high-risk persons who would benefit from its daily use.