Daily HIV prevention pill mooted for teenagers
Vaginal ring trial also starting soon
An HIV-prevention pill‚ taken once a day‚ is safe for teenagers to use‚ according to a South African study released at the International Aids Society conference yesterday.
Truvada can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by at least 90% if taken daily.
There is some discussion by the departments of health and education that Truvada possibly be given to high-risk teens in the future and the drug Truvada is mentioned in the education department’s latest policy on sexual health in schools.
A small South African trial tested the HIV pill in teens aged 15 to 19 in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The study included 99 girls and 49 boys.
In total‚ 57% of the teens took the pill for the first three months. Of the 87% participants who remained using the pill‚ only 38% took it for another three months.
Only one person‚ a 19-yearold‚ contracted HIV in the trial three months after she chose to stop using the drug.
The trial showed it was safe for teenagers to use with minimal side effects.
“Adolescents and young people represent a growing share of people living with HIV worldwide‚” noted Anthony Fauci‚ director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ‚ part of the National Institutes of Health who funded the study.
“Science has demonstrated that the HIV prevention needs of adolescents may be different than those of adults‚ which is why these new study findings are so important.”
University of KwaZulu-Natal pharmacist Andy Gray said that in order to offer effective HIV prevention‚ many options needed to be available.
“The challenge is finding the unique mix of interventions that suits every high-risk person – from the menu of PrEP [a pill a day]‚ condoms‚ monogamous relationships‚ avoidance of other risk behaviour [like IV drug use or binge drinking]. No single intervention will be 100% effective‚ and 100% acceptable to every individual.”
Gray said adherence to medicine, even for long-term illnesses, was usually low.
Gray said, for example‚ only half of people with high blood pressure control it well‚ with almost half of users not taking their pill every day.
He said asthmatics skip taking “inhaled steroid doses‚ even though they know that puts them at risk of an acute attack”.
A new trial comparing a vaginal ring which secretes an ARV drug into women with the preventative pill is starting soon in South Africa.