Primary Care Clinicians Can Play a Critical Role in Ending the HIV Epidemic

Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a single daily pill that contains two antiretroviral medications, lowers risk for acquiring HIV by as much as 97% in patients at high risk for HIV infection. PrEP has been identified as part of a national strategy to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by 2030, and in July 2019, PrEP received a grade A recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (NEJM JW Infect Dis Jun 2019 and JAMA 2019; 321:2203). Nevertheless, most of the estimated 1.2 million people eligible for PrEP in the U.S. are not receiving it.

In a Special Communication, a primary care internist and an HIV specialist argue that “generalists will need to be at the center of any successful effort to leverage the power of … PrEP to end the…