Positively Aware Special Issue on PrEP Now Available

A special issue of Positively Aware magazine focusing on PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for helping to prevent HIV is now available, both in print and online at positivelyaware.com. The 24-page special focus issue was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc.

PrEP is when medicines are used before possible exposures to HIV to prevent infection. The single tablet Truvada®, originally approved to treat HIV/AIDS in combination with other antiretrovirals in 2004, is made up of two medications, emtricitabine and tenofovir DF, and was approved for use in PrEP in 2012.

Contributors to the issue include Robert Grant, MD, MPH, senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and a Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and senior investigator of the iPrEx study, one of the pivotal studies which led to approval of Truvada for PrEP. Grant states in his article that antiretroviral therapy has revolutionized care for people living with HIV/AIDS, and these same medications can be taken by HIV-negative people with the goal of staying free of HIV, which has led to unprecedented optimism about the prospect of ending AIDS.

The guest editor for the issue, entitled “Let’s Talk About PrEP,” is Keith R. Green, MSW. Green is a regular contributor and former associate editor of Positively Aware, and is currently chairman of the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus (CBGMC). “Producing this issue has been a labor of love that has enabled me to take inventory of the many encouraging advances that are currently evolving in the world of HIV prevention, as well as all of the challenges that we have yet to overcome,” says Green.

Other contributors to the issue are Timothy D. Mastro, MD, Group Director of Global Health, Population, and Nutrition at FHI 360; Darrel Wheeler, PhD, MPH, ACSW, Dean of the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago; Dázon Dixon Diallo, MPH, founder and president of SisterLove, Inc. in Atlanta; Washington, D.C.-based consultant, writer, and women’s health activist Anna Forbes; Kali Lindsey, Director of Legislative and Public Affairs for the National Minority AIDS Council; and two young men who share their stories about using PrEP and offer their own personal perspectives.

Positively Aware is an internationally known and respected magazine devoted to HIV treatment and health. It has a circulation of over 100,000, and is published bi-monthly by Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN). Founded in 1987, TPAN is Chicago’s oldest peer-led AIDS service organization and specializes in treatment information, support services, and prevention.

To order copies of the magazine, call (773) 989-9400 or distribution@tpan.com. For more information about TPAN and Positively Aware magazine visit www.tpan.com and www.positivelyaware.com.