Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and HIV Incidence

Abstract

Abstract Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a drug that, as demonstrated in clinical trials, when taken makes the user virtually immune to HIV. This has led to numerous countries making the drug available, but little is known about the population level effects of PrEP. Using panel data from 40 European countries I study the effect of countries adopting WHO recommendations to make PrEP available to citizens. I demonstrate that PrEP availability leads to around 15–20 % fewer new HIV infections. My results indicate that PrEP can be an effective tool in reducing HIV incidence.