Imagine if there was a pill that everyone could take and it would magically prevent transmission of the AIDS virus.
Well, there is, at least in theory. But just how useful, appropriate and affordable it is in the real world is a point of much contention.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada to be used for prevention of AIDS in people who are not infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.
The approach, called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, has created a lot of buzz at the the 19th International AIDS Conference, being held this week in Washington.
“This is a powerful tool that can be used for vulnerable HIV-negative individuals. We’ve waited a long time for this,” Nelly Mugo, head of research at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, told delegates.
The target market for PrEP is people in “discordant” couples – meaning men or women who have a partner who is HIV-positive, of which there are some five million worldwide. The approach could, theoretically, also help slow the infection rate in high-risk groups like sex workers and intravenous drug users, who are estimated to number some three million who are HIV positive. (According to the World Health Organization, approximately 34-million people worldwide are HIV-positive).