The fight to end HIV during our lifetime got just a game-changing innovation.
In June, FDA approves Yejtugo (Lenkapavir), a groundbreaking HIV prevention treatment that requires only two injections per year – and scores 99 percent of the effectiveness in tests. This monumental scientific success is ready to change the lives of those who have found it difficult to live with daily oral pre-existing Profilaxis, providing an option that fits better in their everyday life.
But this development is exciting, it may be reduced by the proposal to cut the proposal of Trump administration. About $ 1 billion From federal HIV prevention programs. Innovation such as Lenakpavir can be an important tool to eliminate epidemic, but only if we have resources and policy to direct it directly to those who need them most.
Although Lenakpavir’s efficacy is groundbreaking, access remains another story. A price tag is hovering around $ 28,000 One year, this drug is the risk of getting out of access to communities that require the most. We are still waiting to see how the programs managed by Gillid Sciences were managed, which developed the remedies, and would take extensive insurance market steps. And this is not just the cost of the drug. It is on a potential road to the laboratories, the provider’s visit, the follow-up-one person who is trying to be safe.
Federal leadership is necessary to ensure that this new HIV prevention equipment reaches communities that require the most. This involves updating clinical guidelines, funding of support services and supporting infrastructure that makes possible.
Unfortunately, the Republican prominences in the Trump administration and the Congress are reaching out to innovations throughout their lives. Administration attacks on HIV prevention, including its proposals Remove centers of HIV budget of disease control and prevention And attempts to eliminate public health systems are threatened by progress. Republican budget cohesion bill Sign in President Trump in the weekend of July 4 involves a deep cut to Medicid – the largest payer for HIV care in the US, expanding access to new equipment and ending HIV epidemic is at serious risk.
Despite the real progress we have made in the prevention of HIV, among us, they are especially in rural areas to navigate non-wise southern or poverty in rural areas-knowing that every prevention strategy does not reach for us, work for us, or is made with us. Our realities demand those options that show the whole truth about who we are and how we live.
Lenakpavir provides real, powerful hope, but let’s clear: Science alone will not save us. What the difference will be is the same and intentional policies that keep our communities and a public health infrastructure at the center that do not leave us behind.
This number does not shift on its own. Yes, we have progressed over time. But the difficult truth is that black Americans still eat 43 percent of all new HIVs diagnose In the US, only 13 percent of the population. Data for black transgender women is even more: 44 percent are living with HIVAnd their lifetime risk remains unacceptable.
And we cannot ignore the geography of this epidemic. South account for 52 percent of all new HIVs diagnose This is not a coincidence in the US-this is the result of systemic failures: limited access to healthcare, frequent stigma, lack of comprehensive sex education and absence of strong non-discrimination safety. These obstacles not only prevent care – they implicate people in cycles where prevention equipment is out of access.
The risk of contracting HIV, between gay and bisexual black men, is still 50 percent in a lifetime. Prevention tools such as east-exposure Profilaxis and Lenakpavir make promises, but they only matter only when people can actually access them without any fear, shame or force. Eliminating this epidemic means creating an environment where people are safe to make informed alternatives about their own health.
The battle to eliminate HIV epidemic is not only about what is in laboratories – it is about how we make these innovations real for our communities. Science is doing its share. Now the Congress is time to reject any deduction in CDC HIV prevention efforts and to completely fund the HIV response. We have equipment to eliminate this epidemic, but not if we destroy the systems that trust our communities to survive.
The promise of Lenakpavir, and it is hoped that it represents, it is great for falling through the crack of neglect of the policy. The question is, will we make an option to ensure that this success reaches all of us? Science has given us equipment. Now, we should ensure that everyone has the opportunity to use them.
Matthew is a senior public policy advocate in Rose Human Rights Campaign.
