EchoLive: Cork is the only city without a specialised HIV prevention clinic - Roisin Burke
CORK is the only city without a PrEP HIV prevention clinic and Cork’s Gay Project is calling on the HSE to create a unit in Ireland’s second city.
PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a safe and highly effective drug that prevents the contraction of HIV.
The Gay Project Director Pádraig Rice said it’s scandalous that the government have failed to make PrEP available to the people of Cork as part of its new €5.4 million PrEP programme.
“The Government can’t call this a National Programme when there is no provision in the second-largest city – this is a huge, inexcusable gap in coverage.”
Mr Rice said that as of November 4 there are clinics in smaller cities and towns like Waterford, Limerick, Galway and Portlaoise.
“We were told there was one planned for Cork University Hospital but that proposal never materialised. I can’t understand how people at risk of HIV in Cork can be neglected like this. PrEP has the potential to prevent hundreds of new HIV infections. We can’t be left behind – this is too important.”
Pic: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at a HIV Ireland event
