However, PrEP still remains widely available, often provided via telemedicine.
COVID-19 has had a major impact on health care, and the provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is no exception. Since the start of the pandemic, a Boston clinic has seen declines in the number of people starting PrEP, refills of PrEP prescriptions and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a report at the International AIDS Conference, being held virtually this week.
“COVID-19 has led to major disruptions in PrEP care, especially in vulnerable populations,” International AIDS Society president and conference cochair Anton Pozniak, MD, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said at an advance media briefing.
People who are not having sex while social distancing or sheltering in place due to COVID-19 do not need to keep taking PrEP. “It’s perfectly fine to take a break from PrEP while not having sex,” Julia Marcus, PhD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School and the Fenway Institute in Boston, recently told POZ.
