PrEP at Harbor Care
We provide Pep, Prep, antiretrovirals and more!
Harbor Care offers primary and preventative health, as well as a full range of other healthcare options.
“People should not have to die from HIV or AIDs,” says Roberta Silva, Director of Nursing at Harbor Care Health and Wellness Center (HCHWC). “Ending the spread of HIV infections by taking PrEP is empowering, proactive and having control of your own life, protecting you and your partners.”
December is AIDS Awareness Month. At HCHWC, we say the best way to celebrate AIDS Awareness is to keep yourself and others safe from the virus. This means:
Investigate which sexual behaviors are the safest.
Use condoms the right way every time you have sex.
Abstinence (not having sex) is always an option.
Get tested and treated for other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Having other STDs increases your risk for getting or transmitting HIV.
If you think you may have been exposed to HIV, take a Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) medication within 72 hours of the incident. Call Harbor Care at 603-821-7788 if you need PEP.
If you are at risk for HIV exposure because your partner is HIV+ or uses intravenous drugs, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) can keep you healthy.
If you are HIV+, make sure to take your antiretroviral medications as prescribed in order to keep your viral load (amount of virus in your blood) at the minimum, also called “undetectable.” If you stay undetectable, you can stay healthy and have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to your sex partner. Harbor Care provides antiretroviral medications to keep you and your loved one healthy.
PrEP can keep you safe from HIV.
PrEP is medicine that can stop HIV from taking hold and spreading throughout your body. If taken as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV from sex or injection drug use. PrEP may be right for you if you test negative for HIV, and any of the following apply to you:
You have had sex in the past six months and you
have a sexual partner with HIV (especially if the partner has an unknown or detectable viral load),
have not consistently used a condom, or
have been diagnosed with an STD in the past 6 months.
You inject drugs and you
have an injection partner with HIV, or
share needlesor other equipment to inject drugs (for example, cookers).
You have been prescribed PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) and you
report continued risky behavior, or
have used multiple courses of PEP.
What’s the difference?
How do Truvada and Descovy compare?
PrEP can help protect your baby.
If you are a woman and have a partner with HIV and are considering getting pregnant, talk to your doctor about PrEP if you’re not already taking it. PrEP may be an option to help protect you and your baby from getting HIV while you try to get pregnant, during pregnancy, or while breastfeeding.
Two different PrEP drugs are currently available.
Truvada is for all people at risk through sex or injection drug use.
Descovy is for people at risk through sex, except for people assigned female at birth who are at risk of getting HIV from vaginal sex.
PrEP is much less effective when it is not taken as prescribed. Remember, PrEP protects you against only HIV -- not against other STDs or infections.
Talk with your health care provider to determine if PrEP is right for you.
At HCHWC all of our providers understand PrEP and can prescribe it to our patients. Patients receive all relevant health screenings, one of which is a sexual health screening. Our providers will also test to see if your kidneys are working well. Patients who receive a negative HIV test will be eligible for PrEP and will be retested every three months afterward, as long as they remain on the medication. As PrEP prescriptions are usually for three months, quarterly HIV testing and receiving each new prescription go hand in hand. Those with a positive HIV test will be referred for anti-viral medications that can keep them healthy.
Although some patients prefer to get their PrEP from a separate provider than they get their primary care; HCHWC patients benefit from Harbor Care’s Integrated Care. In addition to primary care (including pediatrics), patients may receive behavioral health, dental care, substance use recovery treatment, and pharmaceutical services all under one roof.
Harbor Care patients also enjoy the services of insurance navigators, who help both those with insurance and those without to help cover the cost medications. Using our navigators, new patients generally are able to secure a 30-day prescription for PrEP within 15 minutes. Afterward they will have 30 days to fill out the and submit the application to underwrite their three-month prescriptions moving forward.
Be sure to tell your primary care provider if you have any side-effects while taking PrEP that become severe or don’t go away. You should also tell your health care provider if you have trouble remembering to take your pill or want to stop PrEP.
For more information on PrEP and other healthcare options, email hope@harborcarenh.org or call 603-821-7788.