Last week, the Columbia City Council approved a new contract with the state that will expand access to PrEP, a medication that can keep people from getting HIV through sexual contact or injection drug-use.
Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services’s new 10-month contract with the state is for about $71,000.
Trina Teacutter, the community health manager at Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, said the money will go toward covering staff time, so services can be expanded, and toward covering the cost of visits for patients.
“We want them to have the ability to protect themselves against, you know, pregnancy, unintended pregnancy, or HIV, or other STIs,” Teacutter said. “And so, the PrEP clinic is really trying to lower the number of cases, lower transmission, give people that opportunity to protect themselves.”
Teacutter added one of the main focuses of the contract is to increase the number of providers in the state providing this care.
Tracey Bathe, the prevention and investigation manager at the health department, said the health department already provides access to PrEP, but the new contact will lead to more capacity and more appointment times.
“The cost of HIV care is in the billions, and so, you know, if we can do work for much less money to prevent it, we're spending a lot less in prevention than we would be in care once they test positive and they become a patient,” Bathe said.
