31 October 14
Ending HIV
UNAIDS Welcomes New Indications of Effectiveness of PrEP
Following from yesterday’s breaking news about the second European scientific trial of PrEP being closed early due to high effectiveness, The UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) welcomed the strong indications from two ongoing trials of PrEP among men who have sex with men.
The IPERGAY trial, conducted by the ANRS, the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, enrolled 400 men who have sex with men in France to establish the efficacy of taking the antiretroviral combination of tenofovir/emtricitabine as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) before and after sex rather than daily.
The data safety and monitoring board for the IPERGAY trial reviewed data for the study and found a “very significant” reduction in the risk of HIV infection in the group of participants using tenofovir/emtricitabine as PrEP compared to the placebo group. The monitoring board subsequently recommended that the placebo group be stopped and that all trial participants should be offered tenofovir/emtricitabine as PrEP.
Source: UNAIDS website