Paradoxes of PrEP for HIV Prevention
By Morten Skovdal
Published
Feb 17, 2025Page count
176 pagesISBN
978-1447375364Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jan 1, 2025Page count
176 pagesISBN
978-1447372493Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Feb 17, 2025Page count
176 pagesISBN
978-1447372509Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Feb 17, 2025Page count
176 pagesISBN
978-1447372509Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Policy Press
Paradoxes of PrEP for HIV Prevention
Available open access digitally under CC-BY licence.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a drug taken by HIV-negative people that reduces the risk of getting HIV. Comparing two case studies in Denmark and Zimbabwe, this book demonstrates six paradoxes that users often encounter in navigating their PrEP journey. The paradoxes lead to contentions, uncertainties, dilemmas and ambiguities that need to be carefully and pensively responded to through what the author terms ‘everyday PrEP negotiations’.
The social nature and need for such everyday PrEP negotiations help explain why PrEP works for some people and not for others. This book argues that such insight is critical to make PrEP work for more people and to inform social public health responses.
“Skovdal provides a compelling examination of the ‘paradoxes of PrEP’, highlighting that PrEP is a culturally contingent intervention that necessitates in-depth examination to ensure it reaches its full potential.” Maurice Nagington, University of Manchester
Morten Skovdal is Professor of Participatory Health Research at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
1. Introduction: PrEP and the Biomedical turn in HIV prevention
2. Two empirical case studies
3. Accessible, yet inaccessible
4. Healthy, yet on treatment
5. Responsible, yet irresponsible
6. Protective, yet unprotective
7. Acceptable, yet stigmatising
8. Liberating, yet restraining
9. Problematic, yet productive paradoxes?
