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LOS ANGELES — Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles issued a report last week that showed that gay men on PrEP are at high risk for contracting other sexually transmitted infections, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced in a press release.

Authors reported in the Sept. 10 issue of AIDS, a research journal, that a meta-analysis of 18 cohort studies of men who have sex with men (MSM) found that those on PrEP are 25.3 times more likely to acquire gonorrhoeae and 45 times more likely to contract syphilis vs. MSMs not on PrEP.

“These results by the UCLA researchers add timely, statistical evidence to the concerns AHF has long held and expressed regarding PrEP being widely promoted as a public health strategy,” said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, in an AHF press release. “While we’ve often been mischaracterized and criticized for our position on PrEP, AHF’s mission and goal has always been to use scientific evidence to advocate for public policies that will inform and help protect the public from all STDs. This latest analysis should be a wakeup call for MSMs and other sexually active people that PrEP is not the magical panacea it’s often promoted to be.”

The UCLA researchers’ report supports a 2014 study from Kaiser Permanente that revealed that the use of PrEP resulted in a 45 percent increase in condomless sex among certain study participants, leaving them vulnerable to disease.