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A new program will provide the drug
Truvada to more than 100 East Bay youth along with safe-sex counseling and
other sexual health services to prevent HIV transmission. In 2012, the US Food
and Drug Administration approved Truvada to help prevent HIV in high-risk
healthy individuals. George Lemp, director of the University of California
Office of the President’s HIV/AIDS Research Program, cited the frustration with
the inability to reduce the number of new infections as the driving force
behind the more aggressive method of prevention. The University of California
program will award $18 million in grants throughout four years to teams in
Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego to test this new approach of distributing
Truvada to high-risk groups. The Bay Area program will be supervised by the
Downtown Youth Clinic, which is part of the East Bay AIDS Center at Alta Bates
Summit Medical Center in Oakland.
The program will target
15–29-year-old gay men in cities along the Bay from Richmond through Berkeley,
Oakland, and to Fremont. The program will include regular monitoring of
participants for adverse reactions to the drug, organizing peer discussion
groups, stressing the importance of safe sex, and delivering a variety of
sexual health services to young men who often lack healthcare. The drug, which
sells wholesale for approximately $46 per daily pill—$1,300 a month—will be
free for participants. Drug manufacturer Gilead is donating approximately $20
million worth of the medication to programs in the Bay Area and Southern
California. According to Project Director Ifeoma Udoh, program leaders plan to
use social media to contact youth and will reach out at schools, parties, and
other places where young people congregate.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus.
To learn more about The Friends of
AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
