PrEP, a Key HIV Prevention Tool, Isn’t Reaching Black Women

October 16, 2023

(KFF Health News) – PrEP is a crucial tool in the fight against the ongoing HIV epidemic and, when taken as prescribed, is highly effective at preventing infection from sexual contact or injection drug use. But more than a decade after the first PrEP drug was approved for the U.S. market, one of the groups that would benefit most from the medications isn’t taking them: Black women, such as Perkins, whose gender identity align with their sex assigned at birth. Doctors, public health researchers, and those who provide HIV treatment and prevention services say long-standing, systemic factors, such as stigma and racism, are major barriers to PrEP uptake among cisgender Black women.  (Read More)