The inevitable is happening as we predicted here at GMAP. Remember PrEP is nothing like the contraceptive pill for gay men, as is sold by the gay (ill)health organisations. HIV is an ever mutating disease and the drug regime can be complex depending on the strain you are infected with to get to an undetectable viral load. If you read between the lines of this article not only did PrEP not work against a drug resistant strain but his HIV infection was more difficult to treat because Truvada was used as PrEP. Truvada is one of the first line of drugs that is used to treat HIV. It’s also relevant to note that the man who infected him, his treatment was failing, is this due to continued barebacking? Did he actually believe he was undetectable and told his partner? Who knows.
It’s therefore important for HIV positive men to wear a condom not only for their partners but their own health so they are not reinfected with a different strain on HIV which is resistant to their present drug regime. The more barebacking that occurs in the gay community the more these resistant strains will occur, the less PrEP will work and the more complex and difficult to treat HIV will be, if treatable at all.
The gay (ill)health organisations are doing the gay community a disservice to sell HIV as easy to treat, you just take one pill a day and get on with your life for the next 50 years. http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/02/26/hiv_transmission_on_prep_is_possible_but_very_rare_according_to_new_study.html
Which failure are you talking about?
The one in Toronto?
The one in New York?
The one in Amsterdam or
The one in Sydney?
With thousands and thousands of men taking Truvada, PreP is still incredibly efficacious.
But the reason for having this blog is without doubt to scare people.
Max, what about the scare tactics, partial reporting and dishonest statistics used to promote PrEP?
For example the evil demonisation of condoms as somehow “unsafe”? And the articles about gay men who are “terrified” about getting HIV because they “only” have condoms to rely on?
Most “condom failure” is user error yet flawed use of condoms is regularly compared to perfect PrEP pill popping. When in fact we know there is a huge problem with people not taking the meds as instructed.
These days an unprecedented number of HIV+ men are undetectable for HIV, so condoms have never been safer. The numerous sexually active gay men aged in their 40s and 50s who are not HIV+ are proof that condoms are highly effective against HIV.
If condoms are “unsafe” then why 15-20 years ago were the gay health charities urging us to fuck HIV+ men using a condom? At a time when none of those men were undetectable and meds were less effective…
Something doesn’t add up?
Other than on our website where can people find discussion about the longterm health implications of taking Truvada? About emerging drug resistant strains of HIV and what happens when PrEP users (and positive gay men) encounter those in the future? About the huge rise in STIs due to barebacking and how that will bring forward antibiotic resistance?
We aren’t trying to scare people. We are informing them and arming them by asking the questions that are mysteriously missing everywhere else.
Why are you worried about one small website amongst tens of thousands which spread the on-message PrEPaganda?