Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an HIV prevention technology involving the administration and self-administration of antiretroviral drugs. It represents a radical departure away from the use of antiretroviral medication solely to treat people who have already tested positive for HIV and towards a policy of prevention that targets people identified at risk of contracting HIV.  Despite its rollout in numerous national health systems, access to PrEP for HIV prevention remains markedly uneven, and barriers such as eligibility criteria, high costs, limited insurance coverage, long waiting times, and stigma continue to exclude many from accessing PrEP. As a result, many individuals turn to informal PrEP, an array of practices involving the acquisition and self-managing of PrEP outside formal healthcare systems, often without prescriptions or medical supervision.

In the real world, the story of DIY PrEP is very complex and features treatment activist formations that have been instrumental in widening access to PrEP and facilitating pathways, as well as providing information about safe ways to source and use the medicines. These activists’ formations might include traditional health activist, but also sympathetic clinicians, academics, PrEP users or communication professionals, among others. Because DIY has benefited mainly white gay men in the West, it is important to focus on global and transnational stories that can provide different perspectives of a phenomena that has been key in the history of the struggle against HIV and AIDS.