The US government launched a new program on Tuesday to provide an HIV prevention drug for free to people who need the protection but have no insurance to pay for it.

Taking certain anti-HIV drugs every day dramatically reduces the chances that someone who is still healthy becomes infected through sex or injection drug use.  

But only about 18 percent of the 1.2 million Americans who might benefit got a prescription last year, Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar said. And for those without insurance, the drugs can cost up to $2,000 a month.

Expanding access to what´s called PrEP – for pre-exposure prophylaxis – is one key to the Trump administration´s ambitious goal of ending the nation’s HIV epidemic by 2030 and has helped New York City reach its goal of having 90 percent of people with HIV aware of their status, on treatment and virally suppressed two years early.

Now, the HHS’s new program will partner with Gilead Sciences to provide its PrEP drug to 200,000 uninsured Americans for free for 10 years, Azar announced Tuesday.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar(pictured)  announced a new program Tuesday to provide an HIV prevention drug for free to people who need the protection but have no insurance to pay for it (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

‘We have the tools to stop the spread of HIV in its tracks. It´s about execution,’ Azar told The Associated Press.To qualify, people must have a valid prescription and a negative HIV test and must lack prescription drug coverage. 

They can apply through a new website, GetYourPrEP.com. 

Once approved, they’ll be provided a card with a number necessary for their pharmacy to fill the prescription at no cost, officials said.

Uninsured aren’t the only the concern. 

Even though most insurers cover PrEP, co-pays still can be obstacles, especially for people with high-deductible plans. Gilead, based in Foster City, California, sells the only two brands of PrEP, Truvada and Descovy, approved in the US. A cheaper generic version of Truvada is expected next fall.

Getting doctors to ask their patients about HIV risk factors and educating the public about PrEP also are hurdles.

 PrEP use has increased since 2016, when just nine percent of those qualified got a prescription for HIV prevention, said Dr Jonathan Mermin, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The increase is a good sign, but ‘progress is not fast enough,’ Mermin said.

There are about 38,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. each year. President Donald Trump’s administration aims to reduce those by 75 percent in five years and by 90 percent in 10 years.

About 60 percent of people living with HIV live in states where the Affordable Care Act’s expansion improved access to health care in general and PrEP in particular, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report published in 2017. 

But it also found that 2.5 million Americans are still beyond the reach of the program. Among them are ‘thousands’ living with HIV. 

PrEP is estimated to reduce the risk of HIV infection through sex by 90 percent and through injection drug use by 70 percent. Access to it is predicted to prevent new infections as well as save the US from covering high healthcare costs associated with treating and managing the disease once it’s contracted. 

New York City officials announced on Monday that PrEP adoption had reached 90 percent of those living with HIV in the city, and that 90 percent of them had blood levels of the virus low enough to make the disease non-transmissable – two years ahead of its goal. Federal health officials hope expanding access to PrEP will help to similarly speed the US toward the goal of eliminating HIV by 2030. 

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