Welsh Conservative North Wales Assembly Member, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh Government to provide other prevention interventions alongside HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, following its announcement of an all-Wales PrEP trial to reduce the risk of people becoming HIV positive.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has announced an all-Wales study to provide the medication used for PrEP ,a tablet called Truvada, ‘to all those who would benefit from the preventative treatment’.
Questioning the Health Secretary in the Assembly Chamber, Mr Isherwood said:
“The results of the UK-based 2015 PROUD study, evaluating the effectiveness of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, amongst a high-risk group of gay and bisexual men, showed that daily use reduced the number of HIV infections by 86 per cent in this group, and that, when taken properly, the effectiveness was nearly 100 per cent”.
“How do you respond to the Terrence Higgins Trust call for this to be provided alongside other prevention interventions, such as condom use, behaviour change, and regular HIV testing?”
The Health Secretary replied that “it won’t just be PrEP in an isolated way—it’s seeing it in its context, as part of the work that we want to do to try and ensure that as many people as possible do not acquire HIV”.
ENDS