Trends in PrEP interest
Lately I’ve been exploring trends in utilization of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. Data from Google Trends shows a spike in the number of searches for “emtriciabine/tenofovir” when the FDA approved its use for HIV prevention in addition to treatment.
More general searches for HIV PrEP are increasing at a rate that looks very similar to the trend in the number of unique individuals initiating PrEP. Bush et al. (2016) estimates the number of unique individuals initiating PrEP increased 523% from Q32013 to Q32015. Google searches increased 634% during this same period. This growth is strikingly similar, and more analysis is needed.
The United States comes in second to Kenya for the most frequent HIV PrEP searches.
References: Google Trends and Bush S, et al. ASM/ICAAC 2016; Boston, MA. #2651
