In several studies of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), people who took the medications consistently had up to a 92%-lower risk of getting the HIV infection than those who didn’t take the medicines.
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1 AnswerA
Scientists do not yet know how long it takes PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to become fully effective after you start taking it. Some studies suggest that if you take PrEP every day, it reaches its maximum protection in blood at 20 days, in rectal tissue at about 7 days, and in vaginal tissues at about 20 days.
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PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is only for people who have an ongoing substantial risk of HIV infection. For those who have had a single high-risk event of potential HIV exposure—such as sex without a condom, needle-sharing injection drug use or sexual assault—there is another option called postexposure prophylaxis, or PEP. PEP must begin within 72 hours of exposure.
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The purpose of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is to help you avoid becoming infected with HIV. Since there are 50,000 new HIV infections each year in the United States and no cure or vaccine is available, prevention is key. When taken every day as directed, PrEP can provide a high level of protection against HIV. It is even more effective when it is combined with condoms and other prevention tools.
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PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is covered by most insurance programs, but if you do not have insurance, your health care provider can give you information about medication assistance programs that help pay for PrEP medicine.
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About one in five Americans smokes cigarettes; smoking causes one in every five deaths in the United States each year. The smoking rate is at least double among people who have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
If you smoke and have HIV, you're more likely to get HIV-related infections, including:
- Thrush (a mouth infection, also called oral candidiasis)
- Hairy leukoplakia (white mouth sores)
- Bacterial pneumonia
- Pneumocystis pneumonia, a dangerous lung infection
Smoking when you have HIV also makes you more likely to get other serious illnesses than nonsmokers with HIV. These illnesses can make you too sick to work and can even lead to an early death. Some of the conditions you may develop include:
- COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a serious lung disease that causes severe breathing problems and includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis)
- Heart disease and stroke
- Lung cancer, head and neck cancer, cervical cancer and anal cancer
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There have been documented cases of HIV transmission between women who have sex with women, but the total number of women is still uncertain and the mode of transmission has not yet been clarified. The most common mode of HIV transmission in women is through unprotected penile sex, but women who participate in injectable drug use, trade sex for money or other benefits, share unprotected sex toys, or in rare cases, have blood transfusions may also be at risk despite their sexual preferences.
The CDC lacks specific statistics on women who have sex with women, likely because of these confounding risks. For example, in 2004 the CDC documented 7,381 out of 246,461 cases of women who were diagnosed with HIV, and only 534 of these women stated they had sex with only women, approximately 0.2%. Nonetheless, 91% of these women also admitted to IV drug use. Overall, despite the lack of specific statistics, it can be safely assessed that the risk of transmission of HIV from women having sex with women is less than that for other modes of transmission such as penile sex or injectable drug use.
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Here are some factors that put women at risk for HIV.
- Heterosexual sex puts women at risk for HIV. It is important to know a male partner's HIV status and insist upon condom use during sexual encounters.
- Unprotected vaginal sex puts women at risk for HIV, and unprotected anal sex places women at an even greater risk for HIV transmission.
- Women who have experienced sexual abuse may use drugs as a coping mechanism, find it difficult to refuse unwanted sex, exchange sex for drugs or engage in risky sexual behaviors, all of which increase HIV transmission risk.
- Sharing equipment contaminated with HIV to inject drugs and other substances increases HIV risk. Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol can also lead to high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex.
- Having a sexually transmitted disease greatly increases the chances of HIV. Women of color are at even greater risk due to higher rates of gonorrhea and syphilis compared to white women.
- Social determinants of health like poverty or limited access to high-quality health care; the exchange of sex for drugs, money or to meet other needs; and higher levels of substance use can increase HIV risk.
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The rate of new HIV infections among black women was 15 times as high as that of white women and over three times as high as that of Latina women in 2009.
The reasons why black and Latina women are more affected by HIV and AIDS than women of other racial and ethnic groups are not directly related to race or ethnicity, but rather to the circumstances that place these women and girls at greater risk of becoming infected with HIV. These circumstances may include higher rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in communities of color, limited access to high-quality health care, poverty, stigma, fear and discrimination.
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HealthyWomen answeredSee All 2 AnswersSince the beginning of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in the mid-1980s, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections among U.S. women have increased, especially in women of color. In 1985, only a small percentage of people living with AIDS were female. Today, women make up 24%. The good news is that infections among U.S. women began decreasing in 2001.
Even though the rate of diagnosis for black women has decreased significantly since 2001, it remains 20 times the rate for white women. Black women represent about 13-14% of all U.S. women and, yet, account for 64% of AIDS cases in women. Hispanic women, who represent about 17% of U.S. women, make up 15% of women with AIDS. White women, who represent about 80% of U.S. women, account for only 18% of people with AIDS.
The higher infection rate for women of color may be due to multiple factors, including lack of HIV knowledge, lower perception of risk, drug or alcohol use and different interpretations of safer sex, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The death rate due to HIV/AIDS is also higher in women of color. According to the CDC, deaths due to HIV infection were among the top 10 leading causes of death for black females age 10 to 54 and Hispanic/Latina females age 15 to 54.