SARASOTA – Nearly 40 million people have died from HIV/AIDS since the first diagnosis of the disease in the early 80s. With advancements in science, HIV is no longer a death sentence, medications are helping prevent the contraction of the disease.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis medication or PrEP, is a once a day pill that someone can take as an additional measure to help prevent HIV infection.
“It is like you are wearing a jacket, it will protect you from the cell when you get in contact with it, when the HIV virus gets inside your body, if you have PrEP, it won’t allow the virus to multiply,” said Director of Prevention Services at CAN Community Health, Yelitza Lemoine.
PrEP was approved by the FDA in 2012 and in 2021, the FDA approved the first injectable treatment for HIV.
“It’s a shot that you can take every two months but rather than having to take a pill every day you just go to the clinic six times a year and it can help prevent HIV infection, it’s really exciting and it’s a game changer because there’s a lot of people that I know that are nervous about having to take a pill every single day,” said Founder of SarasotaOUT.com, Joshua Beadle.
Joshua Beadle has used his platforms to advocate for HIV prevention in partnerships with CAN Community Health.
“I take a very strong role in making sure our community knows about these options and I am like a broken record and I tell my friends about it all the time because I want people to be safer, even if they are using condoms, it’s a great layer of protection, you have to make sure are double protecting yourself because you never know what can happen, a condom can break it’s just a physical item and physical items are not perfect,” says Beadle.
While sharing his experience, Beadle hopes to educate others on HIV, prevention and the stigma behind it
“It’s not just for the LGBTQ community it’s for everyone, if you want to protect yourself from HIV, and basically were all human beings so any of us can get HIV,” said Beadle.
While prevention is power, knowing your status is the first step.
For more information on testing locations, you can visit CAN Community Health’s website here.
