Dr. Ankrehah Trimble Johnson, known as Dr. Kre, is a board-certified family medicine physician who is dedicated to answering questions about common medical conditions and promoting healthy lifestyles. She is also the Medical Director of the Living Well PreP Clinic [helping] combat HIV one prevention case at a time.
Dr. Kre spoke with rolling out about HIV myths and what people should know about PrEP.
What should people know about PrEP?
PrEP is for everyone. There’s a misconception that PrEP is only for men who have sex with men or for transgender individuals. Those are myths. The regular heterosexual every day, male or female, could benefit from PrEP. You might use it because we don’t know who all our partners interact with. Everybody is a candidate for PrEP, and it comes in a pill form, and it comes from an injection form. If you don’t want to take a pill every single day, you can get the shot. You can do the shot every couple of months.
How often should people get tested for HIV?
[You] should be getting tested at least yearly, and if you are [considered high risk], at least every six months.
What are other myths about HIV that we should know about?
One big thing is that you are in a monogamous relationship. You may be monogamous but your partner may not be monogamous. That’s one of the myths because just because you’re married and have a ring doesn’t mean that you are not prone to getting HIV. No matter your sexual preference, you need to be considering prevention.
Why should people trust the science when it comes to HIV treatment and prevention?
I think that the more aware we are and the more access to the internet, and we can see the studies we have to be aware that everything goes through a long, rigorous process. You go through the FDA, you through human testing, you’ve gone through animal testing, and then we watch it in the real world. [They won’t] give you something that hasn’t gone through all these steps. I’m in Alabama, so I’m well aware. We had the Tuskegee study and that just finished in the 70s. I was born in the 80s. I know that we have our concerns, [biases, and] trust issues, but when we look at the literature, and you look at the facts, it’s a no-brainer.
