PrEP stops HIV before transmission
in: Health and Well-Being
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection, which untreated results in AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) has killed over 40 million people worldwide since it was first identified in the early 1980s. While there is still no vaccine to prevent HIV infection, highly effective pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, or PrEP, has become an important aspect of limiting the spread of HIV since it was approved in the US in 2012 after clinical trials funded through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Born out of research into antiretroviral drugs for treatment, these daily medications are taken by people who are at higher-risk for getting HIV, and have been shown to drastically reduce the chance of infection if exposed to HIV. In the UK, for example, the number of new infections amongst gay men dropped for the first time ever the year PrEP began being perscribed as part of the first trial in that country in 2017.
Access to these medications is a key part of the push to eliminating infections and deaths due to HIV across the United States and globally. While new infections worldwide peaked in 2004, HIV/AIDS remains one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa. Given just how effective these medications have been, broad access to PrEP has the potential to stop this ongoing global epidemic.
- States: CA , RI , CT , MA , MD , MI , WA
- Organizations: University of California San Francisco
- Topics: Biology , Health
- Federal Grants: NIAID NCT00458393 , UO1 AI64002 , UO1 AI84735 , RO1 AI062333 , UL1 RR024131
- Links and further reading: [ link1 | link2 | link3 ]