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From:	Adeyemo Gabriel [ profile ]
Subject:	Only some men should use AIDS drug for prevention
Sent:	Jan 30th, 2011 - 13:07:55

	Date: 27 January 2011 Source:* Reuters* AUTHOR: Maggie Fox http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/27/us-aids-prevention-idUSTRE70Q7NG20110127 Only high-risk gay and bisexual men should use Gilead's HIV drug Truvada to protect themselves from the AIDS virus, federal officials said on Thursday in the first official guidance on using the drug. A study published last November showed that the pill, which combines two AIDS drugs, reduced the HIV infection rate by nearly 44 percent in high-risk gay and bisexual men. It worked even better if the men used the drug consistently. Some doctors have already been using the experimental approach, called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP for short. This use of the drug is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has approved Truvada for treating HIV infection. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to issue some guidance for doctors who may want to prescribe the drug to protect people at very high risk of infection with the fatal and incurable virus. "Concerns exist that without early guidance, various unsafe and potentially less effective PrEP-related practices could develop among health-care providers and MSM (men who have sex with men) beginning to use PrEP in the coming weeks and months," the CDC says in its guidance. For instance, people might be tempted to use other HIV drugs, which have not been shown to prevent infection, they might just take the pills occasionally, they might not get screened for infection first and they might not get the needed counseling. Please click on the above link to read more on this article. -- Many Thanks Yours' in Prevention Science Adeyemo Damilare Gabriel Moderator: Students' for Microbicides (S4M), Nigeria Regional Focal Point - West Africa Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AID +234-80-6798-7317 \| gabriel (at) gyca.org www.gyca.org \| www.tigweb.org GYCA is a youth-led global network of more than 4,500 young leaders and adult allies working on youth and HIV/AIDS in 150 countries world-wide. GYCA's mission is to empower young leaders with the skills, knowledge, resources and opportunities they need to scale up HIV/AIDS interventions amongst their peers.

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