Province adds preventive HIV meds to universal coverage

Alberta will join the list of six Canadian provinces currently covering health-care costs for PrEP, a medication preventing the spread of HIV, Premier Rachel Notley said Saturday.

Notley was in Calgary speaking to members of the city’s LGBTQ community and their allies during her annual Pride Brunch for Camp fYrefly, a support program for queer and trans youth.

The crowd rose to its feet and cheered when the premier announced the province will start providing coverage for the drug starting in October, which is more than 90 per cent effective in reducing the transmission of HIV in high risk individuals.

“By making (PrEP) more accessible and more affordable to people who are at greater risk of getting HIV, then we’re able to reduce the incidences of HIV,” the premier said. “It’s that simple.”

Notley said health advocates have been pushing the government to make the expensive preventive drug (costing upwards of $250 per day) more accessible to Albertans.

A prescription from a doctor will be required to be eligible for the drug and Notley said more details on the coverage roll out will be available in coming weeks.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, like Truvada or an approved generic equivalent, can be prescribed to men having unprotected sex with other men, or to men or women having sex with people who use intravenous drugs, or with people infected with HIV.

PrEP medications are once-daily tablets which cost a user $8.30 a pill or around $3,000 every year, the province said.

Alberta has the third-highest population of people with HIV in the country, with the province saying 6.6 people in every 100,000 carry the disease. Only B.C. and Quebec have higher rates at 8.6 and 7.1 respectively.

Saskatchewan, B.C., Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have all implemented cost coverage plans for PrEP medications.

Pam Krause, president and chief executive officer of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, said the move to cover PrEP shows the province is committed to tackling issues faced by the LGBTQ community while making a potentially life-saving medication readily available to any and all Albertans at risk of contracting HIV.

“It’s a huge step forward to have public coverage and access, so those are the really important things from our perspective,” Krause said.

And while some could see the move as controversial, Krause said any effort to prevent the spread of HIV is a welcome one. She also stressed the importance of practising safe sex regardless of a person’s level of HIV risk.

“Safe sex remains super important in all circumstances, but really, HIV is not just a (sexually transmitted disease),” Krause said. “HIV remains, whether we see it as often or not, as the potential of a life-ending disease.

“So anything we can do to promote people to be safer and healthier in our society … why wouldn’t we?”