HIV injection ‘effective’
TRANSMISSIONS: NEW MEDICINE 69% BETTER THAN PILLS, STUDY FINDS
The next stage is for the companion study, HPTN 084, to be completed.
Anew form of HIV prevention medicine which is injected every two months is effective, according to the interim analysis of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 083 study.
The HPTN 083 study focused on HIV-negative men who have sex with men and transgender women who have sex with men, in North and South America, Asia, and Africa. The study directly compared the current standard, which is emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 200mg and 300mg tablets (FTC/TDF), which are taken every day by HIV-negative people, with the new cabotegravir treatment, which is injected every two months.
Out of about 4 600 participants, 50 people in the trial acquired HIV, with 12 in the cabotegravir group, and 38 in the FTC/TDF group. This showed that cabotegravir was 69% more effective than daily pills at preventing HIV acquisition in this trial.
Dr Myron Cohen, one of the trial investigators, said: “Each year, an estimated 1.7 million people are newly diagnosed with HIV. To lower that number, we believe more prevention options are needed. If approved, a new injectable agent, such as long-acting cabotegravir administered every two months, could play an important role in reducing HIV transmission.”
The next stage is for the companion study, HPTN 084, to be completed. HPTN 084 began a year after HPTN 083, and is testing the effectiveness of cabotegravir in women, with over 3 000 sexually active women in seven African countries enrolled in the study.
FTC/TDF tablets form the core of Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP), which are daily medicines taken to prevent HIV, particularly by people who are at a greater than usual risk of infection. PrEP has been identified as one of the keys to slowing and stopping HIV transmission.
Between 44 000 and 45 000 people use PrEP in South Africa, according to last month’s data from PrEP Watch, a website run by the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a New York-based non-profit organisation.
According to the Thembisa model of the South African HIV epidemic, the source on which the official UNAids estimates for South Africa are based since 2017, there are more than 7.5 million people with HIV in South Africa this year, and 190 000 new infections in 2019. About 63% of infected South Africans are women.
There have been huge successes since the peak of the epidemic from 1996-2004, when there were more than 500 000 new infections every year, and a peak of over 280 000 Aids deaths a year in 2004 and 2005. Nevertheless, South African is still worst affected by the HIV pandemic, with an estimated 62 000 Aids deaths projected this year by the Thembisa model. – Republished from Groundup
Each year, 1.7 million people are diagnosed with HIV