• randon31415@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Knowing you have HIV decreases transmission by 90%. Giving antivirals decreases transmission by 99%. Back in the early 2000 I saw a paper saying we could make HIV tests for 10 cents a person if we wanted to produce enough for every person on the planet (0.1810^9= $800 million). That was something that could have been done back then. $40 a vaccine would be a price tag of $320 billion

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      Even with PrEP distributed freely (with a prescription) HIV is still spreading. So unfortunately it’s not purely a money problem. A vaccine you only have to take yearly would dramatically change the landscape of transmission.

      • anachronist
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        4 months ago

        PrEP is very expensive. It is covered potentially partially by insurance.

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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          4 months ago

          I said distributed freely. That’s the case in a lot of places in Europe and Asia and I’ve read enough times on reddit that many Americans get it for free too.