The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that 1.2 million Americans are candidates for Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and should receive counseling about the HIV prevention method. CDC investigators analyzed nationally representative data to estimate the proportion of various U.S. risk groups that engage in behaviors consistent with the indications for a PrEP prescription according to the 2014 U.S. Public Health Service’s PrEP clinical practice guideline.

An estimated 25 percent of sexual active adult MSM, or 492,000 people; 18.5 percent of injection drug users, or 115,000 people; and 0.4 percent of heterosexually active adults, or 624,000 people, are at substantial enough risk for HIV to warrant the consideration of PrEP, according to the CDC.

Stressing that an estimated one-third of health care providers are unaware of PrEP, the CDC stated in its report: “Clinical organizations, health departments and community-based organizations should raise awareness of PrEP among persons with substantial risk for acquiring HIV infection and their health care providers. These data can be used to inform scale-up and evaluation of PrEP coverage. Increasing delivery of PrEP and other highly effective HIV prevention services could lower the number of new HIV infections occurring in the United States each year.”

The CDC also released data indicating a sharp rise in PrEP prescriptions covered by Medicaid in New York. Between July 2013 and June 2014, the state’s Medicaid program saw 303 PrEP prescriptions, a figure that jumped to 1,330 during the July 2014 to June 2015 period. Most of the prescriptions were written for male New York City residents under the age of 50. When data was available about race, it indicated that the New Yorkers on PrEP were largely white.

To read the CDC press release, click here.

To read a CDC fact sheet on the report, click here.

To read the full CDC report, click here.

For a CDC fact sheet on PrEP in general, click here.

To read the CDC report on New York State Medicaid prescriptions of PrEP, click here.