美国国家公共电台 NPR PrEP Campaign Aims To Block HIV Infection And Save Lives In D.C.

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

A big part of Washington, D.C.'s plan to get its HIV rate down is to get more people on PrEP. That's a drug which can prevent HIV infection. Now, PrEP has been around for years, but only a small portion of those at risk for HIV use it. And that is partly because many people still don't know it exists. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports on what the district is doing to get the word out.

SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE¹: To cut new HIV infections in half by 2020, D.C. estimates it'll need to more than quadruple the number of people on PrEP. So the Department of Health and community groups are pulling out all the stops to raise awareness².

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Thinking about sex? Then think about PrEP.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: There's this sexy ad. Picture a woman sensually licking ice cream, a man stroking a golf club, squirting mustard. It's pretty over-the-top. In D.C., you see ads on buses, social media pushes. There's also a campaign called PrEP for Her targeting African-American women who are at high risk of infection in D.C., along with gay and bisexual African-American men. Another outreach effort...

LUIS FELIPE CEBAS: Good morning.

SARAH FLEMING: Good morning.

CEBAS: How are you?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: ...Grabbing bystanders at public events. At a recent conference in D.C., Sarah Fleming stopped by the PrEP table put together by Luis Felipe Cebas of Whitman-Walker Health, which focuses on LGBT patients.

CEBAS: They can protect you against HIV even if it gets into your system. That's a 99 percent.

FLEMING: Wow.

CEBAS: So yeah, it's a big deal.

FLEMING: That is a big deal (laughter).

CEBAS: Yeah, so...

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. It's an HIV drug. When people who are negative take it daily, the medicine builds up in their bodies and can ward³ off HIV infection. Sarah Fleming says she can't understand why she's never heard of it. She even got tested for HIV recently.

FLEMING: And they tell me nothing about this.

CEBAS: Yep.

FLEMING: Like, I was negative, but I feel like - it's preventative.

CEBAS: It is.

FLEMING: So you should tell people about it.

CEBAS: Yeah.

FLEMING: Like, just so you know, there is this...

GREGORIO MILLETT: That doesn't surprise me at all. That's something we hear all the time.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That's Greg Millett from amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. Who knows why no one mentioned PrEP to Sarah Fleming when she tested negative for HIV. But Millett says sometimes providers don't suggest PrEP because of a belief it will increase risky⁴ sexual behavior, although research hasn't shown that to be true. Millett also says there are other reasons why people, especially people of color, haven't accessed PrEP as much as public health officials like him would like. For one, some African-Americans distrust the medical community because of historical mistreatment, he says. And...

MILLETT: In order to be prescribed PrEP, you need to be out to your provider. And we see that for African-American men, as well as for Latino gay men, they're less likely to tell their providers that they are gay or bisexual. So that's another impediment to PrEP.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Millett says several cities across the country - like Seattle, Boston and San Francisco - are making concerted efforts to overcome these challenges and promote PrEP as a tool for reducing HIV transmission. He's impressed with Washington, D.C.'s efforts. And there have been signs of progress. Whitman-Walker Health has seen an uptick in new PrEP patients, including...

RICARDO COOPER: My name is Ricardo Cooper. I am 28 years old.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Cooper is gay and HIV negative. He's been taking PrEP for a few months and says it gives him peace of mind.

COOPER: It's kind of like, I'm good. It just makes me feel so much better about engaging in sexual activity.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Another benefit - he's found he talks more openly about HIV, which still has a lot of stigma⁵ around it. He says he even walks up to people at bars and sells them on PrEP.

COOPER: The professionals can't really force PrEP on people, but I can. And I've done that to my friends. It's like, you don't have an option.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: He says he's usually kind of a private person. But to him, this is important. He wants to do everything he can to spread the word.

COOPER: If I need to be the face of PrEP for this African-American community or the communities that are under-represented - to let them know that it's OK, it's cool, you should at least try it - then I'm perfectly⁶ fine with just stepping out of myself and doing that.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: This kind of community evangelism will be key, along with the bus ads and sexy commercials, to help reach that ultimate goal of ending the HIV epidemic⁷ in the district. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.

KELLY: And this story is part of a reporting partnership⁸ with NPR, WAMU and Kaiser Health News.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

3 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

4 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

5 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

8 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。