New Study On Prevention Of Transfer Of HIV

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

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

The participants included in the changed 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 comparable number of patients taking a placebo, according to the con 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 danger of HIV infection was reduced by more than 70 percent, said study leaders Dr Kachit Choopanya and Dr Michael Martin, supervisor of clinical research for the Thailand Ministry of Public Health-US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Collaboration. Prior inspect has shown that hindering use of antiviral drugs cuts the risk of sexual transmission of HIV in both heterosexual couples and men who have union with men, and also reduces mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

But this is the first study to show that this course might also be effective among injection drug users. Worldwide, injection drug use is believed to cause one in 10 inexperienced 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 median Asia.

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

So "Adoption of this strategy, not as a stand-alone, but in conjunction with needle exchange, counseling, opiate substitution, group support and mental health therapy may enable us to get before 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 sedative is administered under the observance of a health care worker.

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