While Truvada acts as an effective medication to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV, only a small percentage of gay and bisexual men who qualified for taking the daily pill actually did so in 2014, according to a study published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Henry Raymond, DrPH, lead author of the study, and his team at the San Francisco Department of Public Health analyzed data from 411 gay and bisexual men living in San Francisco in 2014, according to Reuters.
Here are five things to know about the study's findings:
- About three fourths of men reported being HIV-negative. Of this sample, 64 percent met at least one of the CDC's criteria for using Truvada, such as having an HIV-positive partner or sexually transmitted infection in the past six months.
- Only 14 percent of men who qualified to use Truvada said they had taken the drug sometime within the past year.
- Researchers applied the study's results to the wider population of gay and bisexual men in San Francisco and estimated 27,745 men weren't using the drug even though they met the criteria to do so.
- About 23 percent of white gay and bisexual men who met the criteria took the pill, compared to 4 percent of Hispanic men, 7 percent of Asian men and 8 percent of black men who took Truvada.
- Researchers caution that the study's findings are limited — considering the analysis took place shortly after Truvada was approved in 2012 — and stated that results may not represent the drug's use in other parts of the country.
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