The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law has found that only 4 percent of sexually active gay and bisexual men in the United States use Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis ( PrEP ), which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined is a highly effective tool to prevent the transmission of HIV.
This is the first study to report on estimates of HIV testing and use of PrEP among gay and bisexual men using a national probability sample in the United States. In the study, researchers examined gay and bisexual men in three age groups: young ( 18-25 ), middle ( 34-41 ) and older ( 52-59 ).
Other findings include that:
Bisexual and non-urban men were less familiar with PrEP compared with gay-identified and urban men;
Slightly more than half ( 52 percent ) of young sexually active gay and bisexual men were familiar with PrEP as HIV prevention, compared with 79 percent of men aged 34-41; and
Black gay/bisexual men were more likely than White men to meet recommendations for HIV testing, which may be due to recent efforts to target Black men for HIV testing.
The full report is at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202806.
Related: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/One-in-four-young-gay-men-have-never-been-tested-for-HIV/64020.html .