There are 373 people diagnosed with HIV every day in Europe, and many more who do not know that they have HIV. 

Current prevention options in Europe include abstinence, condoms, and monogamy. Better access to treatment for people living with HIV means that they are not infectious to others. But altogether these haven’t solved the problem and we still have a raging HIV epidemic in Europe and beyond.

There is a new tool we need to add to the prevention package – pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP for short. PrEP is for HIV negative people and involves taking a pill to stop them catching HIV (typically Truvada which is a pill used for treatment of HIV). Truvada has been licensed and recommended for people at risk of HIV in the United States since July 2012 and recent WHO guidelines recommend PrEP for those at risk of HIV. 

However, we still don’t have PrEP in Europe.

PrEP provides near perfect protection when taken during periods of risk – adding this to the prevention package has had a dramatic impact on HIV infection rates in San Francisco. 

Why hasn’t Europe got PrEP? 

Two major barriers are the lack of prevention infrastructure across Europe and the cost of the drug. Both of these require new investment by European governments at a time of constrained resources.

We want Gilead Sciences, the company that makes Truvada, to be a good partner for prevention and reduce the price of the drug.

You can help us by signing this petition!