New medication guidelines in Canada recommend that people at high risk of contracting HIV take new drugs both before and after virus exposure.
The new strategy, published Monday in CMAJ, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recommends the combination of PrEP (a pre-exposure prohylaxis drug) and nPEP (a non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis) as a highly-effective way of preventing HIV infection.
“There are new biomedical HIV prevention strategies that have been widely endorsed worldwide by organizations including the WHO, U.S. CDC and others,” the study’s lead author, Darrell Tan, told EureakAlert. “In particular, PrEP is a highly effective and safe Health Canada-approved method that involves taking a daily pill, which, if taken properly, can offer almost 100% protection against new HIV infection.”
The drug intervention is to be used alongside other protection — like condoms — to prevent contracting HIV.
These new guidelines will hopefully aid in the prevention of HIV transmission in Canada’s most at-risk populations, the study said, like in the gay community where men are 131 times more likely to become infected with HIV than other citizens. Intravenous drug users are also 59 times more likely to contract the disease than non-users.
The combination of PrEP and nPEP is also much more affordable than past options, the study said.
“To date, the cost of these medications has restricted the feasibility and acceptability of these strategies,” Tan said. “However, the recent introduction of generic versions of antiretroviral medications, as well as increasing availability of public drug coverage for PrEP in Canada may have a substantial effect on their uptake.”
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