The New York City Department of Health has recently launched a campaign called Play Sure to inform New Yorkers that they should know their status and protect themselves against HIV/AIDs.

The campaign is to inform the public of new medications that can be used to prevent and treat HIV. According to the New York City Department of Education, high school students are required to receive six lessons each year on HIV/AIDs.

The program director of Project Reach Youth, an organization that does the sex lesson on HIV/AIDs prevention in MBHS said, “schools now are getting better at making condom information available condom access available for young people, but now we know the next step in protection against HIV specifically is PEP and PrEP, so I think it’s important for both preventive and after sex for people to know.” Because HIV is still a problem in New York City, these lessons are a vital source of information for students. Students will not get the full education they need if the lessons do not include something about PrEP and PEP.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is a relatively new medication that can be used to prevent HIV. When asked about their knowledge of PrEP and PEP students like Luisa Bracket, a senior at MBHS, stated they had none and that they had only seen posters on trains. Not many are aware that PrEP can be taken before one engages in sexual intercourse with someone who might have HIV and PEP can be taken after one has engaged in this behavior as well.

Information on the campaign can be found at:

http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/hiv-be-hiv-sure.page

http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/playsure.page