Drug combo may prevent HIV

[Melayl]

I saw this (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/66421/title/Antiretroviral_drugs_may_prevent_HIV_infection) information in USA Today yesterday, and thought I'd share the good news with the Playground.

[Copacetic]

It's good news, as all positive HIV research results are, but there has only been one study. I remain skeptical. Should the research continue to show a positive trend, there still remains the issue of feasibility and cost-effectiveness.


Still. Good news. :smallcool:

[akma]

Why weren`t hetrosexual men involved in that experiment?

[Don Julio Anejo]

They're generally at much less risk for HIV because they tend to have both less sexual partners and use condoms more often (they have to make sure a girl doesn't get pregnant rather than just STD prevention).

Other than that, it doesn't matter. If someone is a straight dude who sleeps around in an unsafe manner, nothing is stopping him from using the drug therapy.

[Force]

The problem, like with all HIV "treatments" is that the virus mutates so dang fast that developing a drug that works against it long-term is a difficult prospect.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Why weren`t hetrosexual men involved in that experiment?Because the highest risk demographics are in the homosexual and bisexual male populations.* This is rather a small sample although based on the infection rate they seem to have targeted very high risk groups. That said the geographical spread may make this data harder to be sure of. While this is promising I think the point it ends on is key, this treatment cannot be made to seem like an HIV immunity, or else the rate of infection will likely go up with increased risky behaviour.

*I did not say that homo and bisexual males where at most risk, I said that the people at most risk are homo or bisexual. These are two different statements.

[LCR]

While this is interesting, I don't think this is groundbreaking development.
Retroviral therapy is expensive and requires a strict regimen. I don't see how this is a viable means of prevention in a large population.
It might be applicable in very controlled environments, like the described situation described in the article, an infected patient living with a healthy spouse, but it's probably not going to be viable for large scale scenarios.