pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) (Photo : YouTube)
San Francisco's biggest health insurance company announced on September 2, Wednesday that none of its clients who took an anti-HIV daily pill become infected with the virus of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) during a two-year period. The 100 percent success rate disproved the hypothesis of critics that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), would result in less condom use and more HIV infections.
The study was conducted by Kaiser Permanente of San Francisco, and published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. It included 657 people.
All but four of the participants of the study were homosexual men. Although they used fewer contraceptives and thus caught other venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea, none of them contracted HIV, according to The New York Times.
Most STDs can be cured with antibiotics. However, HIV can only be controlled by using antiviral drugs.
Jonathan E. Volk was the study's lead author. He explained the research's findings as reassuring as they show PrEP is effective in high-risk populations. Eighty-five percent of the participants reported having more than one sexual partner.
Dr. Volk and his research team tracked a large group of men who sustained risky behavior from mid-2012. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada, a two-drug combo for preventing HIV infection then.
Around one-third of all San Francisco residents who have private health insurance use Kaiser. It runs its own hospitals, physicians, and pharmacies.
Early trials revealed the PrEP is 92 percent effective at preventing HIV infections, according to Science Recorder. That is when volunteers usually or always take their daily pills.
For example, in a 2014 clinical trial in England among gay men, participants who received a fake placebo pill had nine infections per every 100 person-years of observation. PrEP's effectiveness was "strikingly high."
