What does a shortage of PrEP mean for HIV rates in Aus? + Headlines

PrEP is a miracle drug that is currently in short supply.

Full name pre-exposure prophylaxis, it’s a little blue pill you take once a day – or before and after having sex – that stops 99 per cent of sexual HIV transmissions.

It makes having sex a lot safer, especially for men who have sex with men, and it’s helped the rate of HIV diagnoses in this country plummet by about a third, and has been widely available across Australia for almost a decade.

Now a member of the South Australian parliament, then-Senator for South Australia Robert Simms successfully pushed for PrEP to be placed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, or the PBS, meaning anyone can prevent themselves from getting HIV for about $30 a month.

But a supply shortage has hit – with multiple brands of the medication expected to be in low supply or unavailable until March next year. Rob Simms joins Bension Siebert on this episode of The Briefing to explain what might be causing the delay, and what he thinks the government should be doing about it. 

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