Dr Robert Grant first started fighting HIV/AIDS while studying at the University of California, Berkeley, where he saw firsthand the carnage the disease left in its wake. Almost 30 years later he is an AIDS expert at the Gladstone Institutes and is at the forefront of the fight against the disease.
Grant began pushing antiviral drugs as a way of protecting healthy, non-infected people back in the early 2000s. In 2011, the iPrEx study, for which Grant was protocol chief, released ground-breaking research that showed that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could reduce the possibility of HIV transmission by more than 90 percent.
Despite the findings, the gay community has been slow to pick up on PrEP. In the above extended interview, Nicolas Kazamia talks with Grant about the promise of PrEP and the future of this life-saving drug.
For more on our comprehensive coverage of PrEP:
Part 1: Can a pill a day keep HIV away?
Part 2: A condom-free future?
Part 3: The controversy behind PrEP
Part 4: If gay men can avoid HIV with a pill, why aren’t they taking it?
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