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Everybody should get on PrEP. It's cheap, it's proven, you don't have to trust your partners. If you're having casual sex, you should be on PrEP.
what is PrEP ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-exposure_prophylaxis
Basically a pill you take every day to make you immune from HIV. Which is useful for people who are sexually active.
PrEP isn't a magical pill that makes you immune to HIV, it's a fixed combination of medicines used to treat actual HIV infections taken in advance to prevent the virus from adding its genetic code to your CD4 immune cells DNA.
As any medication it has limitations (requires high compliance, especially in on-demand settings; only protects against HIV; ...) and side effects.
Everything you said is 100% true. Absolutely.
But compared to the horror of potentially getting HIV, it's pretty magical in promiscuous circles.
It's much better than the alternative
I see HIV patients on a daily basis at my job and there is no almost no horror. I haven't seen a "real" AIDS case (the final stadium of the infection) in years and even the one patient that came close had a Lazarus like recovery once he started ART.
HIV is still a serious disease with comorbidities but it's "only" chronical not lethal.But a prevented infection is better than a treated one, so you're right.
Last thing I read about HIV was, that if everybody takes their medicine, infection rates would go to zero and thus HIV could be destroyed in some generations, at least in the western. Africa is still a hug problem afaik. Rumor says, that some people there get infected just to get the HIV drugs which can get you high.
Any side effects?
Yes. There's different medications available for prep each with its own trade-offs. The vast majority of them can potentially antagonize the liver, so it's important to monitor liver function well on prep. As well as periodic HIV screenings, prep is for pre-exposure only. If somebody has HIV already, prep is not what they should be using, could be detrimental, hence the HIV screenings.
As of all medications, each individual must balance the pros and cons, and their net risks based on their activities.
Someone in a committed relationship probably does not need to consider prep, someone with multiple sexual partners who have in turn multiple sexual partners are great candidates for prep and the trade off it presents
Shit made me feel sick. I once threw up and it was food from 20 hours ago.
You don't just casually take any number of medications just in case you might get in touch with something. How many pills would we have to take? 100 daily?
If your sexually active with casual partners, who also have casual partners, PrEP could be a sensible risk avoidance for you.
Also consider HPV vaccine, condom use, etc..
Everything is dependent on risk profile
So how long before one's next flight to Thailand should one start taking this? Asking for a friend.
7 days of dosing before and after sexual encounter are required for many PrEP medications, consult with your doctor / medication document to verify
And/or use condoms. But I guess I don't fuck enough for it to be a problem.