As HIV Infection Rates Rise in Colorado, Pharmacies Can Now Prescribe Preventative Pills

Posted: November 18, 2020

Colorado this month became one of the first states in the nation to let pharmacists prescribe HIV prevention drugs, part of a public health effort to curb rising infection rates nearly a decade after breakthroughs in medicine that can stop HIV’s spread. 

 

Starting this week, pharmacies can begin offering the daily preventative pill or an emergency version that works only if taken within 72 hours of an exposure to the virus. 

The goal is to provide greater access to the medication by allowing people who are at risk of HIV to simply walk into a pharmacy and get the medication after a short consultation with a trained pharmacist. 

While wide swaths of rural Colorado might have just two or three primary care doctors, they typically have about a dozen pharmacies. And 90% of people live within five miles of a pharmacy, according to the Colorado Pharmacists Society. 

 

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