Victoria Australia announces extra $100k for PrEP funding
The Australian state of Victoria has announced an extra AUD$100,000 of funding to a PrEP trial.
The new funding by the Victorian AIDS Council means an extra 600 men who have sex with men will be able to join the trial.
Currently the trial includes men living in the metropolitan area of Melbourne.
There is already a waiting list of those hoping to have access into the trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis, which has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
The Victorian AIDS Council is also urging the Australian federal government to fund a wider trial into PrEP.
VAC chief executive Simon Ruth tells the StarObserver: “It’s time the federal government looked at other options.
“People at risk of HIV across most of the country don’t have subsidised access to PrEP, and even in states that do we’ve seen spaces in the public PrEP trials fill up in no time.
“The Seventh National HIV strategy is now three years old, and HIV-prevention has changed a lot over that time – the strategy only mentions PrEP in passing.
“We call on the incoming federal health minister to show a genuine commitment to HIV-prevention and to take PrEP seriously.”
The president of the VAC, Chad Hughes, adds: “The federal government has committed to ending HIV by 2020, and it can’t meet that commitment without PrEP.
“We again congratulate the state government for establishing the PrEPX trial and helping thousands of Victorians at risk of HIV access this vital HIV prevention tool.”
