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by argonaut 687 days ago
HIV drug resistance is a real issue, not sure why other comments are dismissing the risk of resistance. The risk of resistance is why HIV positive individuals take a cocktail of drugs, and why PrEP (Truvada or Descovy) requires regular HIV testing (because if you end up positive you need to upgraded to a cocktail of drugs).
1 comments
ProfessorLayton 687 days ago
PrEP is incredibly effective, and even better than condoms at preventing HIV. There's various reasons it requires regular testing:

- While very effective, it requires people to actually take it consistently, which is why the injectable form is better for some than the pill.

- PrEP is not without side effects for a small portion of its users. In some cases it can cause bone density loss, or kidney damage. These tests are intended to catch any issues before they cause any permanent damage.

- Since people are coming in to get tested for the aforementioned issues, they also run a full STI panel. This is great and it means those on PrEP (And those managing HIV) are tested more frequently than the general population, and are less likely to transmit an STI than those who don't come in for regular testing.

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