HIV prevention increases with privacy of telemedicine leading to more filled PrEP prescriptions

Caption

Pills for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV with the PrEP acronym engraved are seen.

Credit: File photo / GPB News

Telemedicine use for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prescriptions has greatly increased over time, which translates to more people able to prevent the infection that causes AIDS, according to a study from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health published by JAMA Network Open. 

Roughly 61,000 Georgians live with HIV, and Atlanta ranks in the top five cities nationally for people living with the infection.

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The number of people accessing the medication PrEP without ever having to step foot in a clinic is up thanks in large part to telehealth eliminating risk of stigma, Aaron Siegler, an associate professor at Emory University in the Department of Epidemiology, said.

"In public health, our goal should be to make services like this easy to access," he said. "And the teleprep model, it allows some users to be met closer to where they're most comfortable."

Nearly 20% of U.S. residents who use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention — or more than 110,000 of the approximately 580,000 PrEP users nationwide in 2024 — received their medication via telemedicine, Siegler estimated.

Researchers looked at electronic health records from the largest telemedicine provider of PrEP in the United States to gather data for the study and found that telemedicine use for HIV PrEP greatly increased over time. 

"So, it increased from less than 1% of all PrEP users in the United States in 2020 and, by 2024, it increased to almost 1 in 5 users in the United States," Siegler said.

Having a telemedicine model helps individuals who perceive that they would receive stigma, even if the clinic has a fantastic care model, he added. 

"And keeping in mind that many of the people receiving PrEP are young, healthy persons, often male, who don't necessarily go in for prevention care," he said. "They don't go in for prevention care on a regular basis." 

The system is working by allowing people who may not feel comfortable going into a doctor's office easy access to an important service from the comfort of their homes.