Despite the HIV prevention pill’s success in reducing the number of HIV infections, Health Minister Kuipers does not see the possibility of increasing the pill’s availability this year. This emerges from a letter sent to Parliament.
Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland finds this inexplicable because there are 3000 people on the waiting list at high risk of contracting HIV.
“It’s really incomprehensible why a drug that is safe, effective and saves healthcare costs is underused,” says Mark Vermeulen, director of the AIDS fund Soa Aids Nederland. “PrEP is one of the indispensable tools to definitively stop the spread of the HIV virus. Giving more people access to PrEP brings the end of the HIV epidemic closer.”
decision this summer
A successful pilot is currently underway and 8500 people, mostly homosexuals or transgender people with many different sexual partners, can receive PrEP through GGD. It costs 7.50 euros per month.
This program will continue until August 2024. Minister Kuipers wants to decide in the summer whether PrEP will continue to be offered in the Netherlands. Most likely, that will happen and the drug will be more widely available, but Kuipers wants to wait for RIVM research first. This aims to clarify how effective PrEP is against HIV infections.
“Furthermore, the RIVM is conducting a scenario study on the possibilities for PrEP care to continue in a more structured form after the pilot project ends,” a ministry spokesperson said. “It is important that there are no gaps after the end of the pilot project.”
waste of time
Vermeulen sees this as a risky waste of time. “The effectiveness of PrEP has already been proven in many international studies. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been recommending all countries to use PrEP in risk groups for years. And we are not a separate population group in the Netherlands where PrEP would not work. There’s no need for your own research to justify the expansion of the program.”
Currently, the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Sports thinks that it is not possible to get rid of the 3,000-person waiting list. “The maximum number of participants in the pilot has been increased from 6,500 to 8,500 by the end of 2020,” the spokesperson said.
“There is currently a lack of financial resources to expand the PrEP pilot again. Also, providing more money will not be an immediate solution because GGD sexual health centers also need to have the appropriate capacity and staff.”
Hope for critical parliamentary questions
Vermeulen acknowledges that, as everywhere else, there is a shortage of staff. “However, the municipalities of Amsterdam and Utrecht allocated extra money last year to increase capacity. This definitely made a difference. Also, the massive expansion to 8500 has finally turned out well.”
A committee meeting on medical prevention will be held in the House of Representatives tomorrow. “We hope that Members of the European Parliament will ask critical questions about the accessibility of PrEP in the Netherlands,” Vermeulen says. “Only the House of Representatives can set the ministry.”
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
