The most recent data collected by the CDC indicates that there were 36,136 new HIV diagnoses in the year 2021. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has implemented a bold, whole-ofsociety initiative referred to as Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE). EHE’s current goal is to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the United States by 90% by the year 2030. In addition, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2030 has identified HIV education as a Leading Health Indicator (LHI), which are a small subset of high-priority objectives selected to drive action toward improving health and well-being. In alignment with EHE, two of Healthy People 2030’s objectives are to reduce the number of new HIV infections among adolescents/adults and increase linkage to HIV care.
HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly referred to as PrEP, is a medication for HIV-negative people who are at a higher risk of getting HIV. PrEP reduces a person’s chance of getting HIV from sex or injection drug use. When taken as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV. PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by ~99% and reduces the risk of getting HIV from injection drug use by at least 74%.