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The trial of a drug proven to ward off HIV is proving popular among Bendigonians at risk of acquiring the blood-borne virus.
Bendigo Community Health Services sexual health nurse Maryanne McCluskey said the first of her workplace’s monthly PrEPX clinics was booked out last Friday.
A nurse practitioner from Alfred Health in Melbourne will visit BCHS every month to prescribe trial participants with and monitor the effectiveness of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis drug Truvada.
Taken daily, Truvada – also known as PrEP – can remove a patient’s risk of acquiring HIV.
Ms McCluskey said the trial was reason for LGBTI people who traditionally travelled to Melbourne for sexual health services to stay in their regional hometown.
She said some clients were using the BCHS clinic for sexual health check-ups because they were uncomfortable discussing their sex life and sexuality with a GP.
“If they're gay or bi or trans, then there's all of these assumptions that are often made through mainstream GPs,” Ms McCluskey said.
“Therefore they don’t just get the right health advice they need.
“We want people from any diverse background to come and feel safe.”
With rates of suicide and depression higher in the LGBTI community than among heterosexual, cisgendered people, it was imperative queer people felt comfortable seeking out health services, she said.
Despite lauding the arrival of PrEPX, Ms McCluskey urged the community to continue using condoms to ward off other sexually transmitted infections, which she said were especially prevalent in people under the age of 25.
“They're in that age group when they don’t think anything is going to happen to them.”
Health minister Jill Hennessy announced the PrEPX regional roll-out at World AIDS Day commemorations last December, six months after enrolments in a 2000-place metropolitan study began.
Ballarat, Shepparton, Wodonga and Mildura are also hosting PrEPX clinics.
HIV-negative people over the age of 18 whose sexual or drug-injecting behaviours put them at risk of acquiring the virus are eligible to join the study.
Victorian AIDS Council chief executive officer Simon Ruth, whose organisation also partially funded PrEPX, said last year HIV was not a problem confined to capital cities.
“Making this highly effective tool available to those individuals at risk in regional or rural settings is paramount if we’re going to see an end to new HIV notifications in Victoria and further afield,” he said.
As many as 25,000 Australians are believed to be living with HIV and AIDS, while another 35 million people worldwide have acquired the virus.