Thailand’s government has stopped the country’s leading pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services from operating, jeopardising an approach that has attracted international attention and is at the heart of Asia’s largest PrEP programme.
Around 80% of people using PrEP in Thailand receive it from a clinic led and staffed by members of the community that it serves. But under new rules, only government doctors can prescribe PrEP and community services cannot dispense it. Another rule change stops PrEP being issued to people excluded from the country’s main health insurance system.
Most of the services affected are ‘key-population led services’. Key populations are groups of people who are disproportionately affected by HIV – in Thailand, men who have sex with men, transgender women and sex workers. The clinics are run by community members and have meaningfully engaged the wider community to create services that respond to their needs.