African Women Report Using HIV Prevention Products At Regular Basis
HIV prevention products can and will be used by adolescent girls and young women with consistency, as per the interim results of a study to be reported at IAS 2021 - the 11th IAS Conference on HIV Science.
The study was designed to fill important gaps in information about the safety and acceptability of two HIV prevention products - the monthly use of dapivirine ring and daily use of the antiretroviral (ARV) tablet Truvada� (combination of the ARV drugs tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine) as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
‘HIV prevention products � the monthly dapivirine ring and daily pill-taking regimen of oral PrEP are shown to be used by adolescent girls and young women with consistency. The positive results attribute to high product adherence and acceptability to the on-going support measures along with a non-judgmental counseling approach.’
HIV Prevalence
It is estimated that more than half of all people living in the world with HIV are women with high rates of infection more among adolescent girls and young women. In sub-Saharan Africa, women contribute to only 10% of the population; but more than 60% of adults with HIV are women between the ages 15-24 as per UNAIDS in 2020.
Consistent daily use of oral PrEP and vaginal rings are required for the protection against HIV. Previous studies have reported that these products were found to be especially challenging for younger women.
The REACH study
However in an on-going study, known as REACH (Reversing the Epidemic in Africa with Choices in HIV prevention), this is not the case. The study is being conducted at four clinical research sites in Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe by the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN).
It includes 247 participants between the ages of 16 and 21 years. It was found that the vast majority of them - 97% had used the vaginal ring and daily oral PrEP some or all of the time. Only less than 3% did not use either of the products, as per the adherence to laboratory tests.
HIV prevention Methods
The study shows that both approaches for HIV prevention received high marks from the study's participants during their use in the six months.
Almost 88% reported that they liked the use of the monthly dapivirine ring and 64% liked the daily pill-taking regimen of oral PrEP. The study team attributes these positive results to high product adherence and acceptability to the on-going support measures, tailored for this population along with non-judgmental counseling approach.
"In many ways, these results exceeded even our own expectations, yet at the same time, it's not surprising to find that these young women have the capacity and desire to protect themselves against HIV. They simply need to feel empowered and have the agency to make choices based on what they feel is right for them," says Gonasagrie (Lulu) Nair, MBChB, MPH, REACH protocol chair and senior lecturer, Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Faculty of Medicine, at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
The on-going trial continues to monitor for the safety of these products among the participants.
Source: Medindia