HIV Pervention Pill Records 100% Suceess Rate

A new study has found that 100 per cent of participants taking Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) prevention pill remained infection free. The study conducted at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, United States  involved more than 600 high-risk individuals, most of whom were men who have sex with men.

These individuals were healthy at the time of enrollment and were put on a daily regimen of a blue pill called Truvada as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Lead author Jonathan Volk, a physician and epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco Medical Center, described the study as “the first to extend the understanding of the use of PrEP in a real-world setting and suggests that the treatment may prevent new HIV infections even in a high-risk setting.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection by up to 92 percent when taken consistently, but is much less effective when taken inconsistently.

In one key study, called PROUD that included men who have sex with men in Britain, the risk was reduced by 86 percent. In this study, 100 percent of the participants remained HIV-free. Not a single person in the study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, became infected while on the drug during the study period that included 2.5 years of observation. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a procedure for people who do not have HIV but who are at substantial risk of contracting the virus to prevent HIV infection by taking a pill every day. The pill (brand name Truvada), which contains two medicines (tenofovir and emtricitabine) were used in combination with other medicines to treat HIV. When someone is exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use, these medicines can work to keep the virus from establishing a permanent infection.