May 9, 2017 BY imani leave a comment
It’s been thirty years since AZT was first approved to treat HIV/AIDS. Since then, anti-retroviral drugs have been helping people live longer, healthier lives after their diagnosis. But just how much has treatment changed in that time?
There’s still no cure, and Philip Chan, a physician and HIV researcher at Brown University, says prevention remains a challenge. If current diagnosis rates continue, 1 in 6 gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. but there have been improvements. For instance, Chan points to the fact that many multi-drug combinations now come in a single-pill form, making daily treatment simpler.
Here are three other advances:
- A pill to prevent HIV infection: Truvada, also known as PrEP, is a single pill taken daily that has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people by up to 92 percent. When taken daily prior to exposure, the two medicines which make up Truvada build up in the body and can kill HIV upon exposure, preventing full-blown infection.
- An at-home HIV test: Research has found that the earlier a person is diagnosed and treated for HIV, the better the outcome. Going to a lab or clinic for bloodwork can be inconvenient and intimidating. A new mouth swab kit eliminates that hurdle, and allows individuals to test at home as frequently as desired. Users should note that the antibodies the test looks for often don’t show up until 1-3 months after exposure, and a doctor may want to confirm the diagnosis before treating.
- Same-day treatment: Dr. Diane Havlir, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has been part of an innovative program in San Francisco focused on substantially curbing the spread of HIV in the city. A key pillar of the program’s success lies in its strategy to get recently infected people into treatment on the same day as their diagnosis. Early treatment can help preserve the immune system and stop the transmission of HIV, but some clinicians worry that patients who have just received a life-altering diagnosis may not be ready to commit to treatment right away. “We need to work together in order to reduce the number of HIV infections,” said Havlir, adding that getting patients into treatment quickly can help empower them to take charge of their treatment. It’s also an inexpensive strategy.
Of course, the holy grail would be a vaccine against HIV.
Dr. Larry Corey, the principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, recently launched a highly ambitious HIV vaccine study, which will test a protective antibody on thousands of people around the world.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” said Corey during a panel discussion at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference on Tuesday. Corey says researchers could start seeing very early results from the trials as early April 2019.