Turning the tide against AIDS by preventing new HIV infections initial experience with Minnesota's first PrEP clinic

During the last 30 years, there have been remarkable improvements in the treatment of patients with HIV. New drug regimens are both tolerable and easy to take, resulting in HIV viral suppression and markedly improved clinical outcomes. Viral suppression in patients with HIV significantly decreases the chance they will transmit the virus. Yet HIV transmission levels in the United States remain unacceptably high. Prevention efforts focused on HIV-negative persons who are at high risk for infection have led to the development of a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) strategy. This article provides an overview of PrEP and a review of the evidence for it, barriers to its use and how PrEP is being used in the United States and Minnesota. With concerted efforts by physicians, patients and public health authorities, PrEP could become a major tool in preventing transmission of the HIV virus.