The USPSTF gave PrEP, the daily pill to prevent HIV infection, its highest-level recommendation - which, under the Affordable Care Act, obliges insurance companies to cover preventive measures that receive strong task force recommendations.
"We have seen firsthand at our clinics how the scale up of PrEP can dramatically decrease the rates of new HIV infection, and improve the quality of life for those individuals who have access to this intervention," said Dr. Antonio Urbina. He is an associate professor of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.
But obstacles remain. The only U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for PrEP, Truvada, currently costs $20,000 a year, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Instead, people who should be taking PrEP face a number of barriers, not the least of which is its cost, she said.
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