In 2014, they succeeded when a state law was changed to reimburse hospitals, at least in part, when they provided the medication to victims who sought treatment and had a rape kit collected.
Now, more than two years later, the law still isn't being followed; the state isn't covering any medication costs.
That has kept hospitals and sexual assault nurses scrambling in some cases to get the expensive and time sensitive drug regimen to patients who often are reeling from the trauma of an attack.
Nurse practitioner Janet Briggs is among those who "pushed and pushed and pushed and made pests of ourselves" to make it a priority for rape victims to get the drugs which can prevent the immune-system attacking virus from taking hold.
"The reality is that despite the fear of potential infection, few if any, victims of sexual assault will have the physical, emotional, or financial means to search for antiretroviral drugs on their own following their assault," Briggs, who works at the Louis Stokes Veterans Administration Medical Center, wrote in a letter to a committee that reviews rules for state agencies. "In light of current knowledge about HIV transmission and our ability to mitigate that risk, to offer no or incomplete prophylaxis is to do harm and deliberately breaches the State's duty to care."
