PrEP can prevent HIV infection in teens—so why aren’t they using it?
Access to PrEP and the stigma that surrounds it has created significant barriers for nearly every group that needs the drug, including teenagers. (Pexels/)Adolescence, that hard-to-forget period of life between age 13 and 19, is a time of exploration and development. For many teens, it’s a time where they begin the process of figuring out their sexuality and sexual identity. That process, like all exploration, comes with some risk, but it’s made far riskier by lack of access to appropriate resources. A new paper, which reviewed current research on American adolescents and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), found that this high-risk demographic needs far more attention than it’s getting. PrEP has been a game changer in the global HIV epidemic. By taking the medication, which consists of antiviral drugs that prevent HIV from latching onto human immune cells, every day, those at risk of contracting HIV from sex see their risk drop...