At a pharmacy in Iowa, a 42-year-old Black gay man couldn't find a medication he needed. The pharmacist, a white woman, told him they didn't stock that medication. But while he waited to pay for his other purchases, he saw another customer place the medication he just asked for on the counter.
"I felt really bad," he said. "I think (when) people place their biases alongside their profession, it makes it difficult to access (health) services." One of these services include PrEP, or preexposure prophylaxis , a highly effective prescription medication that prevents the spread of HIV.
Black gay and bisexual men made up about 38% of the estimated 37,981 new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. in 2022.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 50% of these men will receive an HIV diagnosis during their lifetime. Despite being disproportionately affected by HIV, Black gay and bisexual men have one of the lowest rates of PrEP usage across all age groups. Many of them live in the South, which has the highest number of people living with HIV in the U.
S. but very low PrEP uptake due to stigma, cost and homophobia. Other barriers include lack of trust in the health care system, discrimination, poverty and limited physician knowledge about PrEP.
PrEP faces significant barriers for widespread use among the most vulnerable populations. In 2022, only 36% of the 1.2 million people who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed the medications.
As public health researchers.