Students to get access to HIV preventative drugs
FOR the first time, university and college students will be able to access HIV prevention medication called Truvada.
This was announced yesterday by the Higher Education and Training HIV and AIDS (HEAIDS) national programme.
Truvada is an anti-retroviral pill that reduces the risk of contracting HIV by at least 90% if taken daily.
HIV-negative students at seven universities will be able to access the medication from approved campus health clinics.
The universities are Nelson Mandela University‚ Rhodes‚ University of Limpopo‚ University of the Free State‚ University of Venda‚ University of Zululand and Vaal University of Technology.
Truvada has been rolled out in South Africa at pilot clinics for gay and bisexual men and to some HIV negative sex workers‚ but has not been made available to young people before.
Young women aged between 15 and 25 are most at risk of contracting HIV in South Africa‚ according to data from the Human Sciences Research Council. HEAIDS director Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia said: “In these age groups rates of transactional sex are high and condom uptake is low‚ which is why they are good candidates for the roll out.”
He said many young women at universities were involved in “transactional sex‚ prostitution or used alcohol or drugs putting them at high risk of HIV”.
Some HEAIDS studies indicated 14% of university and college students were involved in “transactional” sex for money or goods‚ he said.
“The aim is that any young student in these universities who feels they are at risk of HIV would be able to access the drug.” This roll out of Truvada to university students was a trial that would give “real world” data if people were interested in prevention and took it daily‚ Ahluwalia said.
Students will be given counselling and medical tests before starting the treatment. They must be HIV negative‚ as this ARV cannot be taken if positive.
Truvada is widely used as prevention in the gay community in San Francisco.