“Have you heard of PrEP?” – This is how the public answered
With just 20 per cent of people in the UK having heard of PrEP, GAY TIMES took to the streets of London to find out what the public knows about the HIV prevention drug.
WORDS BY CONOR CLARK PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of HIV, but knowledge of it still remains scarce outside of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The drug reduces the risk of getting the virus from sex by 99 per cent when taken correctly, though findings from a YouGov poll last year, which was conducted on behalf of Terrence Higgins Trust, showed that ignorance about it is still rife.
In fact, only a quarter of the British public knew that an HIV-positive person cannot pass on the virus when on effective treatment. READ MORE: PrEP: 5 questions about the HIV prevention drug answered In addition, a staggering 77 per cent of people didn’t know that England can end new HIV cases by 2030 as the government proposed on World AIDS Day in 2021.
