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The UN agency for the fight against AIDS on Monday was pleased with the results of an antiretroviral, cabotegravir, which injected every two months helps protect women from the “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” virus.
“A study shows that injections are 89 percent more effective in preventing HIV than pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pills taken daily,” the agency said in a statement.
“These results are extremely important. UNAIDS has long been calling for more acceptable and effective means of HIV prevention for women and this could really change the rules of the game, “says Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS executive director.
“If donors and countries invest to distribute injectable PrEP to women who are at increased risk of HIV infection, new infections could be drastically reduced,” she said.
A more than conclusive test
According to UNAIDS, the clinical trial involved 3,200 high-risk women between the ages of 18 and 45 in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Eswatin, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The largest number of AIDS victims is sub-Saharan Africa.
The trial was stopped early because the data clearly showed the superiority of the injections over the daily ingestion of a pill. Four HIV infections occurred among the women who received the injections compared with 34 among those who took the pill.
“The risk of HIV infection was nine times lower with cabotegravir than with the daily pill,” the statement said. Onusida sees these injections as an alternative to taking a daily tablet, using a condom or abstinence.
Make this antiretroviral available and accessible
“The development of alternative methods to prevent HIV infection and methods that are less restrictive than those currently available will increase choice in AIDS prevention and spread by women and reduce the number of infections,” the press release insisted.
“As with the Covid-19 vaccine, we now need to make sure these life-saving injections are available, affordable and equally distributed to the people who will use them,” said Winnie Byanyima.
In 2018, the year of the latest available statistics, 25.7 million people were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, of whom 16.4 million were receiving antiretroviral therapy.
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