Revolutionary pill prevents HIV infection

Sexual partners of people with HIV in New Zealand could soon have a revolutionary pill to prevent contracting the virus funded.

Pharmac has announced it will begin consultation on a proposal to fund the daily pill which was first developed in 2012.

If taken by an HIV negative person, it can protect them from the virus.

The medicine is called Truvada but the pill is referred to as PrEP.

A study of 343 gay couples who used the drug where one partner had HIV and the other did not, did not find a single case of HIV transmission in over 17,000 acts of unprotected sex.

The executive director of the New Zealand Aids Foundation, Dr Jason Myers, said the pill and its potential funding were ‘‘game-changers for HIV prevention’’.

‘‘We must use these tools to not only end transmissions of HIV, but to get people talking about HIV again and break down the myths that are still out there.

‘‘HIV stigma and discrimination remain very real for people living with HIV in New Zealand and the success of HIV treatment in reducing infectiousness, as well as the uptake of PrEP, provides a direct challenge to this.’’

A new interactive tool is projected to help Kiwis living with HIV better communicate with healthcare providers.

The Unity Tool, which will be introduced to New Zealand this month, uses an online form to take patients through a series of questions which when answered creates an appointment guide they can take to their healthcare provider for further discussion on issues of concern.

Dr Ian Griffiths, medical director of GSK NZ, said the tool was a ‘‘useful precursor to a patient appointment as it helps them identify and describe problems and facilitate a more meaningful conversation with their specialist’’.

It was essential there was greater communication between people living with HIV and their medical carers as the research showed that poor interactions between the two groups had a detrimental effect on a patient’s treatment adherence and quality of life, he said.

The new tools are a welcome introduction after more people were diagnosed with HIV in New Zealand last year than at any other time since records began in 1985.

Figures released in July from Otago University’s Aids Epidemiology Group, show

244 people were diagnosed with HIV in New Zealand in

2016. The previous highest number of diagnoses was 224, in 2015.

The study’s lead researcher, Dr Peter Saxton, said at the time it was ‘‘frustrating’’ to see rates of HIV infection among gay and bisexual men continuing to climb.

His researchers had no current behavioural data so ‘‘we simply don’t know what’s driving the increase’’, he said.