Halloween Bowls of PrEP

Most of what I will say here would likely drive public health and medical researchers nuts. But ... be that as it may be ... the fact is that as a nation (and the world) we ought to be treating HIV/AIDS prevention and care medications suck as Truvada like Halloween candy. Bowls full of these PrEP pills should be put about in places so that anyone in need can come knocking and grabbing without charge and without worry. This is the happy-go-lucky approach to sexuality and it needs to be the same for prevention threats. At worse it will bring about some vocal screams and monstrous agreements to do more.

Drugs like Truvada, when used in any way, shape or manner close to the ways directed, are so effective at suppressing the virus that latches on to the human immune system that it is basically a full and undisputed cure. A recent article on TheConversation.com notes that the biggest issues regarding the drug are connected to costs and who pays for the meds ... NOT the efficacy of the drugs themselves. PrEP fixes those who are sick and stops the progression to a disease state for those infected -- at rates that are so close to 100% it is ridiculous. And where the percentages are lower the obvious answers are cultural and community-based.

I say this knowing of the consequences. The likely results will include overuse of the pills. It could possibly lead to a global evolutionary adjustment so that the ingredients become less successful eventually. And surely, it would unleash a sexual revolution where people are basically forced to confront safe and unsafe issues head on. Which, to me, is a great thing.

The fact is that learning -- I’m mostly speaking culturally in this context -- is a painful and expensive process. But we cannot overlook that reality, no matter whether we get there with guarded steps for some or by inundating the entire populous with what might be too much of a great thing. In the early drug availability efforts, when HIV/AIDS was at its horrible worst, we tried slow and steady approaches. The cost was horrific for the deprived and vulnerable. The issue being: the cost and who paid ... as well as whether the drugs worked.

We have eliminated one of those considerations. In the PrEP iteration, we don’t have to accept that; plus, we have an added benefit: science innovation isn’t stopping. New generations of medications and helpful monitoring technologies will ... are emerging quickly. This will mean Truvada et al. will depart and better options will takeover anyway -- very likely before biophysical reactions occur from the excessive availability of Truvada.

Add to this the fact that other types of modern technologies that capture and display images of what is really happening to people across the planet and it will become impossible for medical caregivers to keep good drugs away from those in need, even if they have to get them by creating unsafe, criminal, and oppression-heavy underground market and supply alternatives. This helps no one and could send us off on other deeply disturbing tangents.

Placing the meds in locations where they can be taken as needed (in conjunction with a immersive media and community empowerment campaign) will solve the most direct issue and allow us to see what happens as the illness is rapidly chased away.

Halloween is supposed to be scary. And candy is bad. But together the social experience works. It seems only fair that we extend the same sense of unity to other domains where a few monsters might scare some sense into our cultural fears.