S.F. Prep Study Shows 41% Decrease in Condom Use, Notes AHF
September 03 2015 - 8:15PM
Business Wire
Good News: No New HIV Infections; Bad News: 50%
Had an STD after 12 months
There is worrisome as well as promising news from data released
from a study of the use of Gilead Sciences’ HIV anti-retroviral
medication, Truvada (tenofovir DF + emtricitabine), for
pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection. The good
news: of the 657 individuals in the study who actually went on PrEP
the were NO HIV infections. The bad news: after 12 months of PrEP
use, 50% of the PrEP users were diagnosed with an STD: 33% with a
rectal STD, 33% with chlamydia, 28% with gonorrhea and 5.5% with
syphilis. Equally worrisome, and perhaps reflected in the high
incidence of STDs reported: there was a self-reported 41% decrease
in condom use, despite the fact that FDA guidelines for use of
Truvada as PrEP include continued condom use.
The study, Volk JE et. al. (2015) “… included all adult Kaiser
Permanente members evaluated for PrEP from July 2012 (the date of
FDA approval) through February 2015.” It culled 1,045 individual
referrals from 170,000 adult members of the San Francisco Bay
Area’s Kaiser Permanente health plan membership. 835 individuals
had an in-person contact, leading to 801 people having an intake
visit regarding possibly starting on PrEP. Of these 801 patients,
657 opted to go on PrEP, while 144 chose not to start PrEP, but
remained part of the study.
“The fact that 50% of the 657 individuals on PrEP in this study
contracted a sexually-transmitted infection after one year on PrEP
suggests that this population is one of the highest-risk groups,
and the most desirable to target for deploying prevention methods
like pre-exposure prophylaxis,” said AHF President Michael
Weinstein. “However, the STD incidence, coupled with the
reported 41% decrease in condom use—despite FDA ‘black box’
guidelines advising continued use of condoms while on PrEP—suggests
the significant limitation of relying solely on a medication-only
approach to prevention.”
Limitations in fully analyzing the study data released include
the fact that no demographic data were released: no racial or
ethnic information on study participants, no economic data, nor
ages of the individuals. The Bay Area is one of the wealthiest
metropolitan areas of the county, with a median income of $63,024
according to the United States Bureau of the Census.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to
over 465,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US,
Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and
Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website:
www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter:
@aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.
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AHFGed Kenslea, Senior Director,
Communications+1.323.308.1833 work+1.323.791.5526
mobilegedk@aidshealth.orgorChristopher Johnson, Associate
Director of Communications+1.323.960.4846
work+1.310.880.9913 mobilechristopher.johnson@aidshealth.org