EAST LANSING — Amna Osman, director of the Michigan Department of Community Health’s Division of Health, Wellness and Disease Control, said the state will have new policies in place “early next year” to advise medical providers when and how to prescribe nonoccupational post exposure prophylaxis (nPEP) for people who might have been exposed to HIV or Hepatitis B or C.

amna 2“The thing is, it’s still kinda new to us,” Osman said following a World AIDS Day event.

Michigan Messenger reported Tuesday that access to nPEP varies from county to county, and health care facility to health care facility in the state, which lacks a “written-in-stone policy” on nPEP.

Federal and world health officials have issued reports calling the regime safe, and issuing guidelines for using it. The regime is a 28-day course of antiretroviral medications which, if taken within 72-hours of exposure to HIV, can prevent a person from becoming infected with the virus. Antiretroviral medications are used to treat the virus in those already infected.

Osman said the fact the state’s Comprehensive Prevention Strategy for 2010-2013, which Michigan Messenger first reported on Monday, did not mention nPEP was a problem.

“Yes, it is a concern,” Osman said.

But Osman said nPEP was only one part of the prevention strategy necessary for the state to effectively combat HIV infections. She said it was important to continue on the state’s move to expand rapid testing, which provides test results in 20 minutes as opposed to up to two weeks, and then getting people linked up with care and prevention programs based on their HIV status.

“We need to get people to know their status,” Osman said.