New trial announced for PrEP for 3,700 people at high risk of HIV infection - NSW

The New South Wales health minister Jillian Skinner has announced on World AIDS Day, that the NSW gov will support a new trial put together by the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW. It will allow 3,700 people at high risk of HIV infection to take PrEP; an HIV preventative treatment currently unavailable in Australia.

Here's the email in it's entirety:

1 December 2015 

Today’s World AIDS Day announcement by Health Minister Jillian Skinner that more people in NSW will have access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a welcome development in the ongoing response to HIV. 

Positive Life welcomes the central role of people living with HIV in the state’s new HIV strategy, also launched today. 

Launching the NSW HIV Strategy 2016-2020 at a World AIDS Day event at Customs House, Minister Skinner said the government would support a trial to rapidly expand the availability of PrEP to about 3700 people at high risk of infection. Titled EPIC-NSW, the trial will be led by Professor David Cooper of the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW. 

“Clinical trials have confirmed PrEP is effective in preventing people contracting HIV in a wide variety of settings and populations, and this new prevention weapon shows promise as being an enormously significant development in the fight to end HIV,” Positive Life CEO Craig Cooper said. 

“Until now, options for obtaining PrEP have been limited to buying it privately at a prohibitively high price; importing a generic version of the medication; or, if you were lucky, getting a place on a much smaller trial. 

“Implementation of the expanded scheme announced by Minister Skinner today will make it easier for people at risk of HIV to obtain the medication, and that’s great news for both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people alike. 

“For people living with HIV, PrEP will help empower our HIV-negative lovers, friends and fuck-buddies and should begin to release all of us from anxiety and fear of transmitting or acquiring HIV,” he said. 

Launching the NSW HIV Strategy 2016-2020, Minister Skinner acknowledged the state’s aim to virtually eliminate HIV transmission by 2020 relied on supporting people diagnosed with HIV to seek treatment. Toward that end, the minister announced a suite of resources would be developed to support clinicians and their patients at the critical time when new diagnoses of HIV are made. 

“People diagnosed with HIV need the right information and advice from their doctor at the time of diagnosis, particularly about their treatment options,” Mr Cooper said. 

“The NSW Government’s actions to develop these new resources to support clinicians and people diagnosed with HIV will help ensure that information and advice is accurate and based on the best available evidence.” 

Mr Cooper said today’s announcement of expanded access to PrEP and the launch of the NSW HIV Strategy 2016-2020 were both significant steps forward in ending HIV. 

“There is still work to be done: we must continue to work toward universal affordable access to PrEP; and we must continue to reinforce the benefits of immediate treatment for people diagnosed with HIV, both for their own long term health and to prevent transmission of HIV to their sexual partners,” he said. 

“We must also continue to reinforce the pillars of Ending HIV 2020 – ‘Test Often, Treat Early, and Prevent’.” 

MEDIA CONTACT: 
Craig Cooper, CEO – 0422 509 200 or email craigc@positivelife.org.au