Learn Mandarin online - HIV prevention could save millions in Africa: study

?  ?

WORLD / Health

HIV prevention could save millions in Africa: study

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-19 10:06

WASHINGTON - Using drugs to prevent HIV infection could prevent as many
as 3 million new cases in Africa if it was done right, researchers
predicted on Tuesday.

?

Pierre Andre Mansour Dalmeida, 17, poses for a portrait in his home in
Senegal's capital Dakar, June 22, 2007. Using drugs to prevent HIV
infection could prevent as many as 3 million new cases in Africa if it
was done right, researchers predicted on Tuesday. [Reuters]?

A daily pill would not even have to prevent infection all the time to
have this effect, if it was given to the right people with the proper
counseling, the team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
and at Imperial College London said.

"If you do it right, you can prevent lots of infections," Pittsburgh's
Dr. John Mellors, who helped direct the study, said in a telephone
interview.

The researchers wanted to know if a potential new approach called
pre-exposure chemoprophylaxis, or PrEP, would work in a real-world
setting.

Studies in monkeys suggest that an HIV drug called tenofovir, made by
California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. under the brand name Viread, can
keep a healthy animal or person from becoming infected with the incurable
virus.

"We looked at a huge range of variables - the efficacy of PrEP, how
quickly the population gets on it, whether they stay on it, what
population you target," Mellors said.

"One of the most important things we found is if you target the two
highest risk groups, about 18 percent of the population, you have the
most cost-effective approach."

For the most part, this means young men who have many different sexual
partners.

The AIDS virus infects close to 40 million people globally and it has
killed 25 million. Sub-Saharan Africa has about 63 percent of all cases.

Condoms can prevent infection, but people do not use them reliably.

Once?a day

But taking a daily pill - or perhaps using a drug vaginally or rectally -
can also prevent infection.

"Our analyses indicate that approximately 2.7 to 3.2 million new HIV-1
infections could be averted in southern sub-Saharan Africa over the next
10 years by targeting PrEP to population groups with the highest sexual
activity concomitant with preventing increased risk behaviors in those on
PrEP," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the online
Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.

Such a program would require intensive counseling to find out who the
most sexually active people were and to ensure that the medication did
not give people a sense of invulnerability, Mellors said.

"If the public feels that they can take a pill and now have more sex, the
effect of the PrEP will go way down," he said.

Their model simulated a real-world African country where 20 percent of
the adult population was infected.

In the best-case scenario, PrEP was effective 90 percent of the time and
used by 75 percent of the sexually active population. The computer model
predicted a 74 percent reduction in new infections.

The group predicted this would cost $2 billion over 10 years for southern
Africa.

If PrEP worked just 30 percent of the time and was used by 25 percent of
the sexually active population, it would only prevent 3.3 percent of new
infections.

Groups are testing tenofovir as a preventive agent in people, both as a
daily pill and as a topical cream that people could use vaginally and
rectally.

Top World News ?

* US diplomatic convoys curtailed in Iraq
* Russian defence minister resigns
* Rice swipes at IAEA, urges bold action on Iran
* N. Korea denies nuclear ties with Syria
* Lawyer: Musharraf will give up army post

Today's Top News ?

* Police find woman's body in abandoned toddler case
* Wipha lands in Zhejiang, 2M evacuated
* Ban: Taiwan's UN bid legally impossible
* Wall Street soars after Fed rate cut
* Abandoned girl sparks 3-nation hunt

Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours

Learn Chinese, Chinese Online Class, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet