Although the ultimate goal of AIDs therapy is to prevent the HIV affecting anyone’s sexual health in the first place, so far nothing — from vaccines to gels — has proven up to the task. Still, that’s not to say that drugs haven’t controlled the spread of HIV, but now a new exciting study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has found a way for antiretroviral drugs to do the job for which they were always intended: guarding the wellbeing of healthy, uninfected individuals against HIV.
For the study, the researchers investigated almost 2,500 HIV-negative gay men, across six countries, who were at high risk of contracting HIV. Of those participants, some were given the currently prescribed treatment dose of a combination anti-HIV medication known as Truvada, while others took a placebo. After the study’s longest follow up of nearly three years, the researchers found that those taking the medication had a 44% lower rate of HIV infection than those taking a placebo. The benefit was even greater amongst those participants who took their medications more faithfully on a daily basis, as their risk of acquiring HIV dropped to a 73% lower rate than the placebo group.
In a statement, Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) National Centre for HIV-AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, commented, ‘These results represent a major advance in HIV prevention research. For the first time, we have evidence that a daily pill used to treat HIV is partially effective for preventing HIV among gay and bisexual men at high risk for infection.’ Other wellness experts echoed this excitement, as those in the HIV community have long been pushing for a stronger preventative strategy, especially in the developing world. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted, ‘The study is really quite impressive, and the data are very robust, really strong.’
The data was particularly encouraging to Fauci, as it represents a closer look at the difference in HIV infection rates among those taking medications, suggesting that varying degrees of exposure to anti-HIV medications can help to thwart infection. Even the volunteers who weren’t on-the-ball with taking their medications had a 13-fold lower rate of HIV infection than those who showed no measurable level of drug in their system. Fauci explained, ‘This is really huge; this is a very impressive result. As with any new treatment strategy, it’s all about whether you adhere to the regimen.’ Fauci added that he suspects many doctors already prescribe antiretroviral medications for this reason; heading off in uninfected but high-risk individuals. Even though government health officials are yet decide whether the results are robust enough to justify recommending anti-HIV drugs as a prevention strategy, Fauci believes these findings should bolster that practice.
Still, that is not to say that the findings give you an excuse to abandon safe sex with condoms. The drugs don’t alter your immune system or prime your body in the same way that a vaccine would against HIV; they act only when the infection is present, and block its ability to infect and replicate in your body’s healthy cells. Therefore, this prevention strategy only ensures that the drugs are on the front lines, ready to act at the first encounter with the virus. As Fenton concluded, ‘[The] results are exciting, but it is not time for anyone to stop using condoms or stop following proven prevention methods. [The study] cannot be seen as the first line of defence against HIV.’
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