Last week, I blogged my opinion on the media’s reception and response to the iPrEx study that showed that in a trial of 2499 HIV negative men and transgendered women who were at high risk for HIV acquisition, those that received daily emtricitabine plus tenofovir (a combination drug) had a 44% reduction in HIV incidence compared to those that received placebo.
I was ticked off by the laissez-faire “a drug already on the pharmacy shelves can prevent HIV” line of reporting the media used with nothing much else said.
Today, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), the largest US organization for medical professionals who practice HIV medicine and researchers in the field, came out with their response to the study.
While acknowledging the importance of this study, they write:
Although ART is one of the most effective and cost-effective medical interventions available today, this lifesaving therapy remains out of reach for too many people living with HIV disease in the United States and around the globe. While the iPrEx results are an important and welcome step forward in the development of more effective prevention strategies, the current resource-constrained environment requires that we prioritize the treatment of HIV-infected individuals with antiretroviral agents, which reduces the harmful effects of the virus to those individuals, while also reducing the risk of HIV transmission to others.
This needed to be said. It should also be pointed out that the people in the trial benefited from other protective measures such as safe sex counselling. And since I love the intricacies of human behaviour so much, I can’t stress enough that taking a once a day medication as prevention (like we do a multivitamin) leads to a compliance problem unlike that when you have to take a combination of pills to stay alive.
Nonetheless, it is exciting research and I can’t wait to see what the future beholds us!
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