VAC responds to anonymous PrEP allegations

The Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) has responded to allegations made in an anonymous
statement issued by unknown individual(s), accompanied by a number of posters. The statement claims
VAC’s has been inactive on pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) in the face of community demand.
VAC CEO Simon Ruth responded to the criticisms:
“We agree—and have always acknowledged—that this process is taking too long, but in the interim we
have not been sitting on our hands. We marched with 6000 people down the streets of Melbourne in July
last year demanding PrEP’s approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. We have been working with
state and federal governments and nationally with other AIDS councils to do anything we can to expedite
the approval process or provide access to PrEP in other ways. We’ve run successful PrEP community forums
for over 18 months to inform and educate our community and encourage active conversation—just last
night we ran a PrEP forum in Adelaide.”
Ruth continued: “We do not believe that this statement represents the community. For the past month
we have been working with community activists looking to provide access and education around PrEP.
One outcome of these discussions has been the development of an accord showing our common ground
on this issue, which will be launched in the coming weeks once all stakeholders involved have signed on.
This accord will ensure that VAC and the activist groups are working towards the same goal: we want PrEP
available now.”
One of the community activist groups involved in the development of the PrEP accord has been PrEP
Access Now, who earlier today issued a statement in response to the criticisms. The statement condemns
the criticisms, and calls for “cooperative community action”:
The statement reads: “[PrEP Access Now] and its current committee members believe in cooperative
community action, we do not believe that attacks and the spreading of vitriol by an individual who seeks
to push an agenda will help the community achieve greater access and education of PrEP. We have been
in regular communication with all organisations within the HIV sector in Australia and with all communityrun
organisations relating to PrEP and as such we understand the processes involved in bringing PrEP to
Australia and we believe the premises of this recent poster campaign are incorrect and are not factual.
We have been made aware of the impending announcements of PrEP access schemes in Australia that will
make it even easier for people to use this HIV preventative.”