HIV Prevention Pills Given to Low Income Youth

Pills to fight the spread of HIV are available to low income youth in the East Bay.

A drug that fights the spread of HIV is being handed out to low-income youth in the East Bay, according to reports.

A new program is making doses of Truvada -- a drug made by Foster City-based company Gilead which can cut down on the risk of transmitting the disease from 42 to 75 percent -- available to about 100 low-income youth, the Bay Area News Group reported.

An $18-million grant from the University of California Office of the President's HIV/AIDS Research Program has been distributed between groups based around the state that are aiming to reduce the number of HIV transmissions, the news agency reported.

About 50,000 new cases of HIV are discovered a year.

Programs like the Downtown Youth Clinic, part of the East Bay AIDS Center at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland -- which can be reached at 510-921-6680 -- are making the pill, which can cost $1,300 a month, available to at-risk populations like Latino and African-American young men, the news agency reported.

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