Health: Spahn wants to prepare for HIV prophylaxis

Stand: 17:19 | Duration of reading: 3 minutes

Jens Spahn (CDU) wants to make the prevention of HIV infections the monetary benefit: people at increased risk of infection should have a legal claim to pre-exposure prophylaxis said Spahn Friday in Deutsches Ärzteblatt. With another law Spahn wants to achieve that doctors offer more open consultation hours without an appointment. To encourage doctors to receive money outside of their budget.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, called Prep, prevents people without HIV from taking certain antiviral medications to protect themselves from badual contact. Medications prevent an increase in HIV. Prep was an "effective protection against HIV", said Spahn at the "Deutsches Ärzteblatt". Experience from other countries would show that the number of HIV infections could be significantly reduced by Prep.

At the same time, the minister warned, "Only it works." Conversely, the risk of resistance and infection increases. "The" wild growth "with Prep in Germany should therefore be opposed to a" structured offer. "Prep costs about 50 euros a month.The Federal Ministry of Health estimates that about 10,000 people will use Prep.

German AIDS Aid hailed this decision as a "milestone in the prevention of HIV in Germany." "The funding of the funds will allow people to have access to HIV prophylaxis and thus prevent many infections," said Winfried Wood, a member of the AIDS Council

with the risk of AIDS disease. Green MP Kordula Schulze-Ash described Prep as the "right way" to reduce the number of HIV infections. However, it remains a drug with side effects, which is only useful for a small circle of patients.

Spahn wants to introduce the HIV prophylaxis bill soon as well as to extend the hours of consultation. This provides for the increase of the minimum number of minutes from 20 to 25 already mentioned in the coalition agreement as well as five additional hours of open consultation, which must be paid outside the budget. It works like "an overflow valve with waiting times too long".

According to Spahn, flat rate packages for open consultation hours are provided, as well as a higher compensation for doctors who accept appointments via appointment points.

The GKV-Spitzenverband opposes paying additional funds to contributors. "If a small part of the doctors do not offer enough appointments and so other doctors intervene on the meeting points, then it is a problem of intra-medical distribution", said the badociation of general practitioners. who need help even treated without an appointment. If these services were to be "finally reasonably paid" in the future, "it would be a step in the right direction," said badociation president Ulrich Weigeldt. However, the time of the family doctor does not increase by offering open consultation hours. That's why it would take more family doctors.