Anti-HIV drug prevents virus developing in healthy gay men: study
Study is perhaps the first and largest published evaluation of the drug in a clinical setting
Scientists have come up with an anti-viral drug that can prevent HIV infection in healthy gay men, they claim. Daily pre-exposure to prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment, stopped the transmission of the virus in the high-risk group of patients.
This study is touted to be the first and largest published evaluation of the drug in a clinical setting. Scientists at the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center examined 657 people, who were started in a PrEP treatment plan, for a period of 32 months. It was found that not one of them developed HIV during the course of the study.
“Ongoing screening and treatments for STIs, including hepatitis C, are an essential component of a PrEP treatment programme,” Dr Julia Marcus, co-author of the study, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. This study got published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.