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African Americans may have greater access to innovative treatment in the future to avoid contracting HIV. The treatment, known as Truvada for PrEP, stops the spread of HIV in Australia, and researchers hope to test it in populations around the world, according to a new study.
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Truvada for PrEP prophylaxis or pre-exposure – a term that refers to the use of antivirals to help prevent HIV and AIDS – has been hailed as a game changer. New cases of HIV among homosexual and bisexual men fell by nearly a third, reaching the lowest level ever recorded, according to a new study published by Australian researchers in the medical journal on HIV Lancet. New HIV infections increased from 149 to 102 in the state of New South Wales, Australia, in the first year after the start of the study – an unprecedented reduction that gives new hope to fight against the virus that causes AIDS.
Australian researchers examined and measured the results of Truvada, a prescription antiviral drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc., in the form of a blue pill, for the first time with the study.
"The speed with which we are seeing new HIV infections among homosexual and bisexual men is a world first," said Andrew Grulich, head of the study and head of HIV epidemiology and prevention at Kirby Institute of HIV. University of New South Wales. "These numbers are the lowest ever since the beginning of HIV surveillance in 1985".
The HIV rate among newly infected populations worldwide has fallen to 1.8 million in 2017, a decline of more than 3 million per year for most of the 1990s. African Americans have found a higher proportion new HIV diagnoses than other races and ethnicities. In 2016, African-Americans accounted for 44% of HIV diagnoses, while they accounted for only 12% of the US population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Truvada for PrEP, a fixed-dose combination of tenofovir, disoproxil and emtricitabine, is increasingly being used for HIV prevention. In the United States, about 180,000 people were taking Truvada for PrEP at the end of June, Robin L. Washington, CFO of Gilead, told Bloomberg in July. The areas where PrEP use is most prevalent have seen some of the best reductions in the number of HIV infections, said Gilead Executive Director John F. Milligan.
It is unclear when and how researchers could further promote the use of Truvada in the United States, but it is highly likely that African-Americans and other at-risk populations will try to follow treatment.
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