A drug designed to prevent people who are at risk of contracting HIV is showing real promise. In the first real-world study conducted, it was found out that those who took Truvada or PrEP as others might call it, are free of HIV as reported in New York Times.
Based on the report, Kaiser Permanente , San Francisco's largest private health insurer announced last Wednesday that taking the daily pill to prevent H.I.V. infection can actually work in the real world. None of its 657 clients that take the drug had become infected over a period of more than two years. This outcome proved the speculations surrounding the drug to be wrong.
When the trial first began, a lot were worried that the pill will would lead to less use of condom and escalate the H.I.V. infections. Although, most of the participants actually dropped the use of condom, resulting to several venereal diseases, not one from the group contracted H.I.V. In the study, participants were sexually active. Nearly all participants were men, who some may have multiple sexual partners at the duration of the study. To test the effectiveness, the researchers have been testing the participants regularly for sexually transmitted diseases and have been giving participants occasional questionnaire.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada for use in 2012, and has been recommended to groups that are high at risk of H.I.V. In earlier trials, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that the drug can actually reduce infection by 92 percent if properly used. However the new study outside clinical setting now proves that the drug works 100 percent. "This shows that the effectiveness of PrEP is really strikingly high," Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. "And this study takes it out of the realm of clinical trials and into the real world."
While most sexual infections can be treated with antibiotics, H.I.V. is a different case. Antiretroviral drugs are the only real means of control and this should be taken for life. With this findings, PrEP can decrease the chances of H.I.V. infections.
