Word: tenofovir
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...antiretroviral drug tenofovir, for example, which was used in the recent Texas study, is often packaged as a potent cocktail with Viagra and Ecstasy or Valium, and sold in dance clubs for $100. Studies in monkeys in 2004 that suggested tenofovir could diminish HIV infection rates appear to have boosted underground sales of the drug, public health officials fear, and other studies among African women in Cameroon and Ghana, although not as successful, have further bolstered sales. A 2006 study by the Centers for Disease Control found that 7% of men who attended gay pride events in four U.S. metro...
...than we do." Even though most of these PrEP (or pre-exposure prophylaxis) studies are conducted in animals, they often give people a "false sense of protection and lead to less condom usage," says Bowers, particularly among highly sexually active individuals. Last spring, following the buzz over studies of tenofovir and emtricitabine, the same drug combo used in the recent Texas mice study, in preventing transmission of SIV (the primate-specific cousin of HIV) in macaque monkeys, Bowers was compelled to respond in his column in HIV Plus magazine, warning that "society once again is moving ahead of science. ... This...
...news is vital: "Any press is good press if they spell your name right," Bowers says, adding that the complex science needs to be explained to the public in easily understood ways. That message, however, is often conflicted. Some doctors have said they're willing to give tenofovir as a preventive to their very sexually active patients, even in the absence of conclusive scientific evidence that it works...
Though initial human studies of tenofovir alone have produced encouraging results, none have shown 100% protection, raising ethical issues and, in some cases, halting trials: In 2004 and 2005, AIDS activists - notably, a Paris-based chapter of ACT UP - protested ARV trials in Cameroon and Cambodia, questioning who would pay for long-term health care for the participants and whether the drugs would cause harmful side effects. Those trials were stopped...
...prevent mother-to- child transmission; since ARVs given to women pre- and post- delivery are effective in reducing the transmission of HIV to the child, some experts believe that using ARVs before exposure to HIV may have the same effect in protecting partners. Five trials, all involving two compounds, Tenofovir or Truvada, are now underway in Thailand, Botswana, Peru, West Africa and even the U.S. It's being tested in groups at highest risk of transmitting the virus - commercial sex workers and gay men. "What you want is a high level of ARV in the blood and body secretions...
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