More than 70 percent of persons living with HIV in Mississippi are Black, and many live in rural areas without accessible healthcare. The Mississippi Department of Health recently announced that PrEP pills are available for free statewide through a telehealth line. Dr. James Brock is an Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He says PrEP is a pill taken once a day to prevent contracting HIV. But he says many who need the medication don't know they are at risk.
“Characteristics might include somebody who has multiple sexual partners, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs are actually also prep candidates,” says Dr. Brock. “And anyone who’s had an intercurrent bacterial STD like syphilis or gonorrhea in the last year, then you’re likely a PrEP candidate as well.”
Dr. Brock says there are several reasons why the pill has been hard to get, including high costs, negative stigmas of HIV, and doctors who are unwilling to talk with patients about sex.
Emerging programs like TelePrEP in Mississippi are one part of addressing the statewide epidemic, says Gerald Gibson, Mobile Clinic Manager at the Open Arms Healthcare Center in Jackson. But he says the areas that need telemedicine the most don’t have broadband access.
“That’s going to make a great difference, but also we have to make sure individuals have access to telehealth, so we’re talking about in a sense of broadband, and we know that the pandemic exposed the lack of broadband and the lack of internet capabilities in some areas. So in certain rural areas of Mississippi, the message may not get there,” says Gibson.
A multi-year plan is underway at the Department of Health that aims to end the HIV epidemic in the state.
