Pride for Youth (a
program of Long Island Crisis Center), a leader in HIV prevention on Long
Island since its inception in 1993, has launched a groundbreaking PrEP
Assessment & Monitoring Program for young gay and bisexual (trans
inclusive) men, through age 30.
Supported through a grant from the New York State Department of Health
(DOH), this is the first program of its kind by a community based organization
on Long Island and one of only a handful statewide.
“Expanding access
to PrEP is a key to ending the AIDS epidemic in New York State, and we commend
Pride for Youth for helping lead the charge on Long Island,” said acting New
York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “PrEP has proven to be a tremendous
prevention method, but it’s essential that people who use it understand the
importance of continued condom use and the need to comply with PrEP’s strict
medication regimen.”
PrEP (pre-exposure
prophylaxis) is a new, FDA approved, HIV prevention method in which individuals
who are not HIV positive take a pill (Truvada) a day to prevent infection. When taken consistently, PrEP has been shown
to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by up to 92%
according to the Centers for Disease Control.
PrEP is one of the three main components of Gov. Cuomo’s End AIDS 2020
Campaign that was launched last June.
Pride for Youth’s
PrEP Program is an expansion of its partnership with the North Shore-LIJ Health
System’s Center for Young Adult, Adolescent and Pediatric HIV that has already
included HIV testing, outreach and greater access to healthcare for young
men. Pride for Youth staff conduct
initial assessments followed by active referrals to North Shore-LIJ for medical
evaluation and formal enrollment for PrEP.
Pride for Youth and North Shore-LIJ staff partner to provide ongoing
support, monitoring and risk-reduction education to all clients. Initial assessments and monitoring are
provided free of charge with health insurance or Medicaid required for medical
services and prescriptions. All services
are also available in Spanish. In
addition, assessment and monitoring is available for post-exposure prophylaxis
(PEP), antiviral drugs that are used after a single, high-risk event to prevent
HIV infection.
“Our PrEP program
is an evolution of not only our commitment to HIV prevention, but also our
partnership with North Shore-LIJ to provide culturally competent healthcare to
young gay/bisexual men and transgender individuals throughout Long Island and
Queens. PrEP empowers individuals to
responsibly take charge of their sex lives and healthcare. Our program has been
met with great enthusiasm and we’ve been enrolling clients since December
2014,” states Pete Carney, Director of Pride for Youth. “We are proud to have a role in bringing
Governor Cuomo’s End AIDS 2020 Campaign to fruition.”
David Rosenthal,
DO, PhD, Medical Director for the North Shore-LIJ Center for Young Adult,
Adolescent and Pediatric HIV, said, “Our partnership with Pride for Youth
brings together the North Shore-LIJ Health System and an LGBTQ-focused
community-based organization to work together to serve our community. Together,
our agencies can provide the most comprehensive care for our clients. In working with Pride for Youth, we are
finding new cases of HIV, helping patients with HIV get back into appropriate medical
care, and preventing the spread of HIV in Long Island and Queens with PrEP as the
backbone of our HIV prevention strategy.
This relationship expands our ability to provide culturally sensitive
medical care in an LGBTQ-friendly environment, which helps bring us closer to
achieving the ‘End AIDS 2020 Campaign’.”
