We need to talk about the relationship between Black men, Latinos, and PrEP.
Research says that men who have sex with other men make up 67% of new HIV infections. Then on top of that, 25 percent of Latino men who have sex with other men (MSM) will be infected with HIV in their lifetime. And, 50 percent of Black MSM will experience the same. That’s compared to 12.5 percent of white men. That said, men of color are less likely to use the HIV preventive drug pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. Why is this?
A recently published study in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report tries to understand why this is happening. The study, led by Dafna Kanny of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDs Prevention looked through interviews with 4,000 men who took part in a 2017 HIV Behavioral Surveillance Survey.
As NBC writes, researchers believe the problem lies in accessibility issues to health care. Studies show health care providers are not prescribing Black and Latino men to PrEP. In addition, men of color are less aware of PrEP’s very existence. The CDC’s study found that 95% of white men, 87% of Latino men, and 43% of Black men are knowledgeable about PrEP. Then even worse, only 58% of white, 44% of Latino, and 43% of Black men said they discussed the preventative medication with a physician.
As Kanny told Reuters Health,“This type of research is critical to finding—and correcting — missed opportunities to offer PrEP to people at risk of HIV, particularly among African American and Latin gay and bisexual men.”
He said further: “It’s important for providers to take sexual histories of gay and bisexual men and to discuss PrEP as an option for HIV prevention with those who could potentially benefit from it,” said Kanny. “These discussions also help to destigmatize PrEP use, which is particularly important for increasing PrEP use among African American and bisexual men.”
Sources: NBC News, Reuters Health, BET
