HIV PEP Singapore | Shim Clinic

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). HIV PEP is a treatment that reduces the risk of HIV infection after exposure, like condom break, slip, or no condom. It is best started within 72 hours of exposure.

What is post-exposure prophylaxis?

• Post – after
• Exposure – coming into contact with
• Prophylaxis – treatment to prevent infection.

So HIV PEP means: “After coming into contact with HIV treatment to prevent infection.”

If you have not yet been exposed to HIV, then you are looking for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

The Short Answer: Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) involves taking anti-HIV medications as soon as possible after you may have been exposed to HIV to try to reduce the chance of becoming HIV positive. These medications keep HIV from making copies of itself and spreading through your body.

Effectiveness: The HIV risk is reduced by more than 90% upon successful completion of treatment.

Drugs and Dosages: The HIV PEP treatment involves taking the same type of medication that a HIV patient takes. Although HIV patients take it for a lifetime, for HIV PEP, it is taken for only one month.

Occasionally, there may be side effects of diarrhea, nausea, and lethargy (generalized tiredness and fatigue).

There is an entry criteria:

• You must be HIV negative.
• The other party is HIV positive, or of unknown HIV status.
• It is preferably less than 72 hours from exposure.
• There should be some form of HIV exposure.

Estimated costs involved:

To help manage costs, starter packs with a few days of medication are available. Subsequently, medication may be purchased in smaller amounts to complete the treatment.

In our experience so far, we have not had any treatment failures when patients diligently complete the whole month of treatment.

References

• Post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection : joint WHO/ILO guidelines on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV infection.

References

• HIV pep @ Wikipedia