According to the company, the drug should be taken (emtricitabine 200 mg/tenofovir disoproxil 245 mg) in combination with safer sex practices to cut down the risk of sexually acquired HIV-1 infection. Uninfected individuals who take Truvada every day can cut their risk of getting HIV during sex by more than 90 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All the participants were asked to take Truvada as needed, just like in the first phase. After nearly 18 months, the researchers noted the chances of all of the participants of contracting the HIV virus fell by nearly 97% in comparison to the results that were seen after they were given the placebo pills in the initial phase of the trial.
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Two pills should be taken two to 24 hours before intercourse. If they had continuous sexual activity, they were told to take a pill each day and a pill for the following two days after last having sex.
In the trial’s first part, there were 6.6 new infections yearly among every 100 people consuming the dummy pill, in comparison to just 0.91 fresh infections annually among every 100 people using PrEP.
Molina was not surprised that infection rates dropped when people started using PrEP regularly. Truvada reduced the risk of infection by 75% in the second study, which involved 4758 heterosexual couples where one partner was HIV-positive and the other was not.
Participants knew the efficacy of on demand PrEP and were more inclined to use it as recommended.
This trial’s phase concluded in 2014. The person had not been taking PrEP in months and no levels of the drug were detected in his blood upon diagnosis.
“At the moment, only about one third of children under the age of 15 who are in need of ART are likely to receive antiretroviral treatment, compared with two-thirds of adults”, says Dr. Marie-Renée B-Lajoie, from McGill’s Dept. of Family Medicine, who led the research.
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The trial results are only applicable to men who have intercourse with other men, but Molina said that studies in other populations are underway. The reduction was mostly observed among men who used to be committed to condom usage.
