Prevention is for everyone – and you can only choose the right prevention strategy for yourself if you are fully informed about the options. Speaking about prevention, we mostly think about protection from HIV. Nevertheless, it is also important to protect yourself against other sexually transmitted diseases. Every sexually active man should know his status – go to be tested on a regular basis! Offers for being tested in Munich can be found at the Münchner Aids-Hilfe at the Checkpoint, the sub also offers tests regularly plus you can go to the Gesundheitsamt. Tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are also offered by your family doctor.
PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and serves as a precaution against HIV infection. Since the fall of 2019, the PrEP, together with the necessary accompanying examinations, has also been taken over by the statutory health insurance funds for people with a high HIV risk.
The “Aids-Hilfe” of Germany (and also scientists) now know three possible prevention strategies against HIV:
– Condoms protect
– Medication as precaution – Protection through therapy
– PrEP – the pill “before”
How to use condoms properly:
The proper use of condoms is being described here extensively and instructionally: https://www.gib-aids-keine-chance.de/wissen/safer_sex/anwenden.php
Medication as precaution – Protection through therapy
It now has been proven to be very unlikely to be infected when having sex without condom with an HIV-positive partner – given that there are permanently no detectable HI viruses in the blood. More information can be found on the web pages of „Iwwit – Ich weiss was ich tu“
PrEP – the pill “before”
There is a controversy going on about PrEP (Pre-Expositional Prophylaxis) at the moment. This means that an HIV-negative person takes medication regularly to protect the body from HI viruses to be able to accumulate there. PrEP has been studied thoroughly and has been proven to work just as expected. In London, for example, the infection rate decreased significantly after having adopted PrEP there. So PrEP does work.
If you want to know more about PrEP, you can find lots of information on the web. The page www.iwantprepnow.co.uk describes PrEP’s details and mechanism in all detail and also contains hints on how to get the medicaments cheaper.
The german page www.wasistprep.de offers similar content as the english page and also refers to many more resourced on the web.
In Munich you can have counseling about PrEP starting in August 2017 at sub every second and fourth Thursday each month at 7.00 PM. There you can meet and chat with PrEP users and ask all the questions that you might have about it. This will probably make it easier for you to decide for or against PrEP for yourself.
What to do if something happened anyway?
Condoms can tear or after having sex you are not so sure any more that everything was actually safe? This is where PEP (Post-Expositional Prophylaxis) could help. The HIV Post-Expositional Prophylaxis (PEP or HIV-PEP) is a 4-week anti-retroviral treatment to avoid an infection with HIV after potentially being exposed to it. It is very important not to wait – PEP has to be started immediately.
The Post-Expositional Prophylaxis (PEP) can be had at the “Immunambulanzen” of the Universitätsklinik München and the Technical University München (IZAR) during daytime and also at the medical practices specializing in HIV in Munich. At night time the emergency rooms of the mentioned hospitals are at your disposal.
More information: https://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/Referat-fuer-Gesundheit-und-Umwelt/Infektionsschutz/Aids/Notfallmassnahmen.html
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Interdisciplinary HIV Center “IZAR” at the Klinikum rechts der Isar
Here is an interview with Dr. Spinner on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goIZAR/posts/768151436695587:0
