Pre‐exposure prophylaxis for people who inject drugs and their sex partners

Abstract

Commentary to: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13437/abstract

Some PWID communities are ready for PrEP, so what's next?

“…The foundation for our response must be recognition of the right to health for all human beings [5] and the increasing futility and collateral damage of the 'war on drugs' and criminalization of PWID [6]. In recognizing the often-ignored crucial role of skilled community advocacy and leadership in battles for service access and harm reduction innovation [2,7], community-driven responses should be the focus for political action.…”

“…We share the concerns of PWID with regard to the poor implementation and the many barriers still limiting access to current HIV prevention services and treatment in many countries [3][4][5]. We think, however, that a polarization of biomedical and other harm reduction approaches for HIV prevention as presented throughout the Guise et al paper may be counterproductive.…”

Pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for people who inject drugs: reconciling community views and biomedical advances

“…Our argument represents the opposite: the current reality of strategy and provision of care for PWID is already polarized by excluding so many views; our analysis seeks to bring to the fore voices rarely heard and so place biomedical advance into a fuller context. The responses in this debate series suggest that this synthesis is possible .…”

“…The consensus across our commentary and responses that pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) should form part of a comprehensive package of HIV prevention for people who inject drugs (PWID) generates two linked questions: how can we ensure that PWID can access all essential elements of comprehensive HIV prevention and have choices across them ? How can the research community best support this effort?…”

“…The foundation for our response must be recognition of the right to health for all human beings and the increasing futility and collateral damage of the ‘war on drugs' and criminalization of PWID . In recognizing the often‐ignored crucial role of skilled community advocacy and leadership in battles for service access and harm reduction innovation , community‐driven responses should be the focus for political action.…”