Norwegians At Risk Of HIV To Receive Free Drug For Prevention

Norwegians at risk of HIV to receive free drug for prevention

In the United States, for example, only part of the cost of a drug is covered by health insurance (without it, its price is about 24 thousand dollars a year), in France, the purchase costs are reimbursed if a person has a prescription - but in Norway they do not require a prescription either.

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People who have a high chance of contracting HIV can now get pre-exposure prophylaxis for free. Such a program has now begun to operate in Norway. Previously, similar initiatives were also implemented - in Canada, France, South Africa and the United States - but only in Norway the medicine is donated to potential patients completely free of charge. In the United States, for example, only part of the cost of a drug is covered by health insurance (without it, its price is about 24 thousand dollars a year), in France, the purchase costs are reimbursed if a person has a prescription - but in Norway they do not require a prescription either.

The remedy that is offered to Norwegians at risk is called PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). According to the results of one of the studies conducted using a drug based on this tool (Truvada), it significantly reduces the risk of infection - by 92-99%. It can be used by homosexual and bisexual men, as well as transgender women. The government has been lobbying for this initiative for 2 years. Leif-Ove Hansen, head of HIV Norway, said that PrEP will help reduce the number of new infections among this category of people, as the likelihood of HIV transmission through homosexual contact is much higher due to the fact that people use condoms less often.

In total, in 2015 there were almost 6 thousand HIV carriers in the country, and if in 2014 249 new patients were registered, then in 2015 there were already 221, 111 of whom were migrants who had become infected before arriving in Norway. The population of the country in 2015 was 5,179 thousand people, so there were less than 0.1% of patients. For comparison, last week MedNovosti wrote about Yekaterinburg, where there are more than 26 thousand HIV carriers out of 1.5 million people.

Source: Norwegian Ministry of Health begins distributing free HIV prevention drugs to citizens

Norway became the first country in the world to include pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV in its public health program. Business Insider writes about this with reference to the statement of the Minister of Health and Welfare of Norway, Bent Høye.

So it goes