ARV shown to halt HIV transmission

30 October 2014 - 02:13 By Katharine Child
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File photo.
File photo.

An HIV trial in France has been partially stopped after researchers found that anti-retrovirals taken just before sex worked to prevent gay men getting the virus.

The trial named Ipergay enrolled 400 HIV negative gay men in 2012. The men were randomised into two groups, with half the men were receiving an anti-retroviral named Truvada to take just before sex and the other half a placebo.

But on Tuesday the Ipergay data safety and monitoring board  decided  it was not longer ethical to continue the trial in its current form.

The men who are receiving the placebo treatment will be given Truvada, as preliminary results have shown that the treatment worked.  Once a treatment is known to work, it cannot be withheld from trial participants.

Truvada is a tablet made of two ARVs: tenofovir and emtracitabine.

The trial in France was controversial because Truvada is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for prevention of HIV in gay men in America.  So French researchers were denying men in the placebo group, a treatment that has proven to be effective elsewhere.

But French scientists had argued that as Truvada is not available in France, the 200 men getting the placebo were only being denied a treatment they couldn't access anyway.

Initial Ipergay results have shown that men taking Truvada just before sex had less HIV infections than those men who were given the placebo.

The trial will continue monitoring the all men on the treatment to collect safety data.

In October 16 a similar trial of gay men using anti-retrovirals in Britain called Proud was halted early for the same reason.

Proud researchers said they found Truvada was "highly protective against HIV." and all British men in the trial on a placebo need to take it. This annoucenent led to the decision to examine the French trial.

It is not the first time HIV trials have been stopped early.  All three trials in Africa that looked at whether circumcision was effective in reducing the risk of HIV were stopped early,  because researchers found the intervention worked. They then offered all participants the snip.

Although Truvada is not licensed for prevention in South Africa, it is is available if private patients get a script from their doctor for the treatment, said Glenn De Swart from Anova Health NGO.

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