CDC to subsidize medicine for people with a high risk of getting HIV

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/27
By: Chen Wei-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday it will subsidize preventive medicine for 1,000 people at high risk of contracting HIV, to lower their chances of getting infected.

Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞), deputy director general of the ministry’s Centers for Disease Control, said that the World Health Organization has recommended the medicine pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) to help prevent HIV infections, with the results especially good among those who practice unsafe sex.

Lo said that five designated hospitals in southern and northern Taiwan will take part in the pilot program starting next month, and provide a subsidy for the medicine to 1,000 people.

But with a limited budget and the desire to motivate people to take steps on their own to prevent themselves from getting the virus, those who receive the subsidy will still have to shoulder part of the expenses and the self-paid ratio will increase each month, according to Lo.    [FULL  STORY]