New Study On Prevention Of Transfer Of HIV

New Study On Prevention Of Transfer Of HIV.
An antiviral downer may domestic protect injection drug users from HIV infection, a unripe study finds. The study of more than 2400 injection drug users recruited at 17 narcotize treatment clinics in Thailand found that daily tablets of tenofovir reduced the risk of HIV infection by nearly 49 percent, compared to non-functioning placebo pills ranbaxy. One expert said an intervention to employee shield injection drug users from HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - is much needed.

And "This is an top-level study that opens up an additional option for preventing HIV in a hard-to-reach population," said Dr Joseph McGowan, medical impresario at the Center for AIDS Research and Treatment at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY. He eminent that "HIV infections keep to occur at high rates, with over 2,5 million worldwide and 50000 creative infections in the US each year formula. This is despite widespread knowledge about HIV infection and the conduct it is spread, through unprotected sex and sharing needles for injecting drugs".

The participants included in the novel study were followed for an average of four years. During that time, 17 of the more than 1200 patients taking tenofovir became infected with HIV, compared with 33 of an one and the same number of patients taking a placebo, according to the cramming published online June 12, 2013 in The Lancet. Further analyses of the results showed that the sheltering effect of tenofovir was highest among those who most closely followed the drug's prescribed regimen.

In this group, the chance of HIV infection was reduced by more than 70 percent, said study leaders Dr Kachit Choopanya and Dr Michael Martin, first of clinical research for the Thailand Ministry of Public Health-US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Collaboration. Prior into or has shown that protective use of antiviral drugs cuts the risk of sexual transmission of HIV in both heterosexual couples and men who have shacking up with men, and also reduces mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

But this is the first study to show that this solicit might also be effective among injection drug users. Worldwide, injection drug use is believed to cause one in 10 revitalized HIV infections. But rates of infection associated with injection drug use are far higher in some areas of the world, such as eastern Europe and principal Asia.

In these regions, up to 80 percent of unexplored HIV infections are caused by injection drug use. According to McGowan, tenofovir is no "silver bullet" that would, on its own, rule out the risk of HIV infection for drug abusers. But it could be a explication ingredient in reducing the odds.

So "Adoption of this strategy, not as a stand-alone, but in conjunction with needle exchange, counseling, opiate substitution, societal support and mental health therapy may enable us to get forward of this expanding epidemic". He added that the participants in the study were also provided with what's known as "directly observed therapy," where the deaden is administered under the observance of a health care worker.

Services like this, along with monthly HIV testing and condom distribution, might not come off in "real life" treatment situations so outcomes might not be as crucial as in this clinical trial. Another expert agreed that adherence to tenofovir analysis is key to success tablet. Tenofovir "accumulates slowly in the body, making the case for adherence - which is strongly associated with the efficacy of the drug," said Victoria Richards, subsidiary professor of medical sciences at the Frank H Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn.