Pill Before, After Sex Cuts HIV for Gay Men
Research suggests that Truvada doesn't need to be taken daily, but more study still needed
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- There's new evidence that gay men not infected with HIV can stay that way if they take a pill called Truvada in the days before and after a sexual encounter with an infected partner.
The strategy is known as "pre-exposure prophylaxis," or PrEP. Prior studies had suggested that chronic, daily use of Truvada (a combo pill of tenofovir plus emtricitabine) could slash rates of HIV transmission in partners where one person was already infected and the other was not.
Now, two new studies -- one from Britain and one jointly conducted in France and Canada -- appear to bolster those results. They were presented Tuesday at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.
The British investigation, called PROUD, involved 500 gay men and seems to reconfirm the effectiveness of standard, once-a-day PrEP. That study found that this dosing strategy lowered HIV infection risk by 86 percent among gay men.
The French/Canadian investigation, called IPERGAY, looked at PrEP taken on a different schedule -- only around the days surrounding a sexual encounter.
It found the same degree of protection -- an 86 percent lower risk for new infection -- among men who took two Truvada pills anytime between 2 and 24 hours prior to having sex with another man, followed by another two pills 24 and 48 hours after sex.
The IPERGAY study, involving 400 participants, was launched in 2012, but was halted prematurely in 2014 in light of strong indications that the approach is highly effective.
However, in a statement released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jonathan Mermin said it is too soon to abandon the once-a-day regimen.
"CDC welcomes the findings presented today by the IPERGAY and PROUD teams, which provide additional evidence of the power of PrEP to reduce the risk of HIV infection," said Mermin, who is director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention.
But Mermin said it is not clear if the approach of only taking PrEP in the days before and after sex will work in all situations.