A drug which stops HIV infecting the body has proved to be a highly effective “real-world” preventative treatment, a study has confirmed. The results of the research on 24,000 people taking it across England, have been described as “reassuring”.
Thousands of people are already taking PrEP through sexual health clinics.
HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust wants easier access to the drug, since many people, including women, do not know it exists.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which led the PrEP Impact Trial with the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said it was the largest ever real-world study of its kind. Funded by NHS England, it was carried out at 157 sexual health clinics across England between October 2017 and July 2020.
The study found use of PrEP, also known as pre-exposure prophylaxis. reduced the chances of getting HIV by around 86% when used in everyday life - taking into account inconsistent or incorrect use. Clinical trials suggested the medication is 99% effective.
I have only heard of PrEP being taking by males. I didn’t know it was approved for use by females in the USA. Or as I have heard in their ad those assigned female at birth.
It’s pretty uncommon, but there are some use cases, namely women in relationships with HIV+ men.
Women of color actually have really high rates of HIV compared to the rest of the population. Working to de-stigmatize both the infection and prevention treatments is a really important part of reducing overall numbers of HIV.
Descovy, a newer form of PrEP, only had male assigned at birth participants in the study (and the number of non-cis males was very, very low if I’m remembering correctly).
The original formulation has been approved for everyone for a while, but since the new formulation was only tested with a certain population, that’s all it’s approved for.
That must be what I have seen before. It was before RuPaul so I think there was a specific audience
Any woman having unprotected sex with men should be on prep.
That’s not entirely true. Receptive vaginal sex is much less likely to transmit the virus than anal sex (about 17x less). Insertive anal sex is more likely to transmit than vaginal sex, too, so the type of sex you have matters too.
Number of partners, and their sexual habits really matter, too. It’s important to help people really understand their STI risk if we want people to make healthier decisions regarding sex.