The Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) said Monday that it is taking its HIV Prevention Trials Network studies to another level as it launches a new concept study that seeks to determine the effectiveness of passive infusion of antibodies in the prevention of HIV in young women in southern Africa.BHP is an organization that supports the country’s HIV/AIDS and public health research, education, prevention, and treatment services.
In a statement, BHP said the “the HPTN 081″ study also known as “antibody mediated protection “(AMP) is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2016.
“This shall be conducted as part of a multi country and multi-site effort like the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 study, locally referred to as the Thibelo study,” BHP said.
HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 study was a multi site multi country trial; a randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy plus primary care compared to simply primary care on its own to prevent HIV sexual transmission among serodiscordant couples (couples where one partner is HIV positive and the other is not).
The study found that early anti retroviral therapy (ART) that suppresses viral replication led to 96% reduction of sexual transmission of HIV-1 in sero-discordant couples.