World Aids Day: Call for preventative HIV drug to all who need it
World Aids Day takes place today, 1 December. Picture: iStock
Calls have been made to rollout a preventative HIV drug to all those who seek it to ensure that new cases of the virus are eradicated in this country.
Marking World Aids Day today, campaigners are now pointing to a dramatic increase in new notified cases and say more investment is required to make sure this country meets its target of having new transmissions by 2030.
HIV Ireland executive director Stephen O’Hare said there are cases of some people waiting up to a year to access the preventative drug known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as the programme is over-subscribed.
"What we would be asking is that anyone who wants to get on PrEP should be able to get on PrEP," he said.
"We need more investment, more resources, and more availability of PrEP to ensure that everybody who wants to get on PrEP can get on PrEP," he said.
"Then we should see the numbers go down."
This year marks 40 years since the first reports of HIV and Aids in Ireland in 1982.
While the number of new transmissions has been dropping slightly each year, there has been a significant increase in newly notified cases this year.
Mr O'Hare said there were around 440 newly notified cases in 2021, however more than 750 cases have been notified already this year.
The HSE said the provision of PrEP to those at substantial risk of sexually acquiring HIV was first introduced in November 2019. Since then, 7,715 individuals have been approved for PrEP, including 2,347 this year.
"Waiting time for those seeking to engage with the PrEP programme for the first time varies around the country. Some services are currently unable to see new PrEP patients, while other services are seeing between one and 10 new patients per week.
"Waiting times of between two weeks and six weeks have been reported for individuals seeking to get an appointment," a HSE spokesperson said.
"The HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme is actively working with existing public PrEP clinics to support them to increase capacity; and is also working to increase the number of PrEP providers."
