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PrEP up for World AIDS Day with this nifty quiz to test your knowledge!

How Much Do You Know About HIV/AIDS?

HIV can be passed on through infected semen, vaginal fluids, rectal secretions, blood or breast milk.  
Risk calculators are available online to determine whether or not you should get HIV tested.

HIV is NOT transmitted through kissing/sharing saliva, urine, or feces.

Can HIV be transmitted through kissing/sharing saliva, urine, or feces?

The level of risk will depend on certain factors such as the type of oral sex, if the person performing has ulcers/sores/bleeding gums, and if someone has been recently infected with HIV.   
Learn more here: http://www.nat.org.uk/we-inform/do-i-understand-hiv

Although the risk is low, HIV can be transmitted through oral sex.

Can HIV be transmitted through oral sex?

There is a window period between the time a person contracts HIV and when the test can detect it. It all depends on the test being used.  
Most HIV tests look for antibodies. The soonest an antibody test will detect HIV is 3 weeks.  
A combination (fourth generation) test looks for HIV antibodies/antigens and can detect HIV 2 to 6 weeks after infection.  
A nucleic acid test (NAT) is very expensive and will take 1 to 4 weeks after infection for detection.  
If you get an HIV test within 3 months after a potential HIV exposure and the result is negative, get tested again in 3 more months to be sure.

A negative test result DOES NOT mean that the patient does not have HIV! It all depends!

A negative test result means that the patient does not have HIV, right?

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) is when people at very high risk for HIV take HIV medicines daily to lower their chances of getting infected. A combination of two HIV medicines (tenofovir and emtricitabine), sold under the name Truvada® (pronounced tru vá duh), is approved for daily use as PrEP to help prevent an HIV-negative person from getting HIV from a sexual or injection-drug-using partner who’s positive. Studies have shown that PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV if it is used as prescribed. PrEP is much less effective when it is not taken consistently.  
For those at very high risk for HIV, PrEP can significantly reduce your risk of HIV infection if taken daily. Daily PrEP use can lower the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90% and from injection drug use by more than 70%. You can combine additional strategies with PrEP to reduce your risk even further.

There is a medication available to prevent HIV. Let's talk about PrEP.

There are no medications available to prevent HIV right?

When taken every day, PrEP is safe and highly effective in preventing HIV infection. PrEP reaches maximum protection from HIV for receptive anal sex at about 7 days of daily use. For all other activities, including insertive anal sex, vaginal sex, and injection drug use, PrEP reaches maximum protection at about 20 days of daily use.

PrEP takes 7 to 20 days of daily use to work! Student pharmacists - assess your patients for medication adherence!

As soon as a patient starts taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication, the drug will work and they don't have to worry about getting HIV.

PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) means taking antiretroviral medicines (ART) after being potentially exposed to HIV to prevent becoming infected.  
PEP should be used only in emergency situations and must be started within 72 hours after a recent possible exposure to HIV. If you’re prescribed PEP, you’ll need to take it once or twice daily for 28 days. PEP is effective in preventing HIV when administered correctly, but not 100%.

Let's talk about PEP

It's an emergency situation and a patient thinks that he/she might be at risk for contracting HIV. Is there a medication we can recommend?

You could use some more PrEP work on HIV/AIDS. But don't worry- there are a lot of resources out there to help you learn more about HIV/AIDS. Let's start with the CDC website (https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/index.html).

Needs improvement.

Looks like you are super PrEPed! Go out there and educate your fellow community about HIV/AIDS. We can all help end AIDS by 2030. Student pharmacists, make us proud.

Great work!

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How Much Do You Know About HIV/AIDS?

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