Are you a person who wants or needs to get on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)? If you thought to yourself, “Yes!” then call Access Health Louisiana (AHL) at 504-226-2976 and ask for a Linkage to Care Coordinator to help link you to PrEP.
September 25-29 is PrEP awareness week. PrEP is taken to help prevent yourself from contracting HIV. PrEP can be taken orally or by injection. If taken orally , it is a single pill taken once a day. With newer research, PrEP can now be given by injection. After your first two monthly injections, it is then given once every other month by a healthcare provider.
Three different PrEP medications can be prescribed. They are Truvada, Descovy, and Apretude. Truvada and Descovy are taken orally, while Apretude is an injectable given in a healthcare setting. Truvada and Apretude are for adults and children of any gender 12 years of age or older and who weigh at least 77 lbs. Descovy is only for adults and children who were assigned male at birth, are 12 years of age or older, and weigh at least 77 lbs.
You may ask “Who is PrEP for?” PrEP is for anyone who is at risk of being exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use. Some examples of being at risk could be: having sex with a person living with HIV, not using condoms, having been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the past 6 months, and sharing needles, syringes, or other injection drug equipment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, PrEP can reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by 99% and from injection drug use by 74% if the medication is taken as prescribed.
At Access Health Louisiana, we can help you apply for Medicaid to see if you are eligible. If you do not have insurance and cannot be approved, we have a sliding scale fee that is based on your income to make the appointments and labs affordable for you. So, no matter your insurance status, there is an affordable way for you to get started on PrEP.
We here at Access Health Louisiana want to make sure that everyone is aware that if they want to get on PrEP, they can! Don’t put off getting on PrEP any longer and reach out to AHL today to talk about your PrEP options!
Phone: 504-226-2976
Website: https://accesshealthla.org/
Resources and References:
https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/infographics/prep-vs-pep
https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep/prep-effectiveness.html
