Office of aids

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)

What is PrEP?

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective HIV prevention strategy in which an individual who does not have HIV takes a daily pill to stay HIV negative. When taken daily as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective in preventing HIV. PrEP is available by prescription from a health provider. Most private health insurance, as well as Medicaid and Medicare, covers PrEP. If you need help with covering copays, there are assistance programs that may help.

What is PEP?

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is 28-day courses of medicine people take after potential exposure to HIV to prevent HIV infection. PEP must be started within 72 hours (3 days) after a possible exposure. If you think you've recently been exposed to HIV, talk to your health care provider or an emergency room doctor about PEP right away.

For more information about PEP, please go to CDC PEP Information

What We Do

Project PrIDE: With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS (OA) has partnered with three local health jurisdictions (Alameda, San Diego and Orange county health departments) and one community-based organization (Desert AIDS Project) to provide PrEP education, training and technical assistance to health care providers. The chief aim of the project is to increase uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among gay men and other men who have sex with men and among transgender individuals. The local partners work to:

Train medical providers to assess their patients' need for PrEP, to provide necessary clinical assessments before initiating PrEP and increase medical providers comfort in prescribing PrEP;
Train non-clinical service providers to educate their clients about PrEP and refer their clients to appropriate medical providers to obtain PrEP;
Increase the knowledge of gay men and transgender individuals so that they will consider using PrEP for HIV prevention and request PrEP from their medical providers;
Use social media to expand awareness of PrEP.

PrEP Navigator Projects: OA established the PrEP Navigator Services to increase the State of California's capacity to effectively link people at risk for HIV to PrEP and provide medical management and medication adherence support.

Nine agencies received awards to establish PrEP Navigator Services Programs to reach individuals at high risk for HIV infection. Navigation services allow physicians, health educators, and outreach workers to collaborate in identifying and addressing barriers to successful PrEP treatment and to provide access to other important care and prevention services. The nine-awarded projects are:

Asian Health Services
Friends Research Institute
Sutter East Bay/Alta Bates
La Clinica De La Raza
Desert AIDS Project
AltaMed Health Services
Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services
Tarzana Treatment Center
Kern County Public Health

Strategic HIV Prevention Programs: The California State Legislature allocated $2.85 million annually to establish up to four Strategic HIV Prevention Projects to reach individuals at high risk for HIV infection and enhance their engagement with HIV care and prevention. The four-awarded projects include AltaMed Health Services, the County of San Diego, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Priority populations to be reached through these Strategic HIV Prevention Projects include gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, transgender women, people who inject drugs, and partners of HIV-positive people. Special emphasis is placed on young gay and bisexual men, young transgender women, and gay and bisexual men and transgender women of color.

This project supports implementation of an array of evidence-based strategies that include biomedical, behavioral, and structural interventions tailored to the needs of diverse and underserved populations at high risk for HIV and/or of being lost to care. The intent of the Strategic HIV Prevention Projects is to provide: