via Leadership, by Winifred Ogbebo *Mentions IRMA advocate Morenike Ukpong!* Like a breath of fresh air, the news that a combination prevention drug would soon hit the Nigerian market is definitely something to cheer about, given Nigeria’s high prevalence of HIV rate, which is said to be second only to South Africa in the African continent. WINIFRED Read More >>

On May 10, 2012 the FDA Antiviral Drug Advisory Committee strongly recommended that emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF/FTC or Truvada) be approved for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among sexually active adult men and women – particularly gay men and other MSM, serodiscordant heterosexual couples, and other individuals at high risk. It is likely the FDA will follow Read More >>

[IRMA highly recommends this one. Brilliant, strategic, thoughtful, sober, forward-thinking – a must read] via POZ, by David Evans Excerpt: Give people the facts–the whole picture–and let them decide whether PrEP is right for them Let’s tell people how effective the drug is when they actually take it as prescribed–over 90 percent effective–and stop quoting statistics from Read More >>

via Lancet.com, by Salim S Abdool Karim  and Quarraisha Abdool Karim On May 10, 2012, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee voted in support of the use of tenofovir-emtricitabine for HIV prevention.1 If the FDA, which is scheduled to make its decision by June 15, adopts the committee’s recommendations, tenofovir-emtricitabine will become the first Read More >>

via aidsmap.com, by Roger Pebody Draft UK guidance on fertility treatment says that sperm washing may no longer be necessary for couples where the man has HIV and the woman does not. As long as the man is on effective antiretroviral treatment and unprotected sex is limited to days when his partner is ovulating, “sperm washing may Read More >>

via PRNewswire In public comments submitted this week, a group of 14 leading HIV/AIDS and health organizations stated their support for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of emtricitabine/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF/FTC or Truvada®) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection in adult men and women. Their comments, submitted in advance of a May 10 Read More >>

via The New York Times, Denis Grady An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration is expected to vote Thursday on whether a drug already used to treat H.I.V. infection should also be approved to prevent it. Such a recommendation, if made, would mark the first time that government advisers have advocated giving antiviral medicine to Read More >>

via AIDSmap.com, by Micheal Carter Few gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Beijing have heard of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), investigators report in PLoS One. Despite this, over two-thirds of men said that they would be willing to take or consider PrEP. “To our knowledge this is the first study to assess awareness Read More >>

via AidsMap.com, by Gus Cairnes Adherence makes all the difference to the efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) heard today. Further data were presented from two trials of PrEP (giving anti-HIV drugs to HIV-negative people to prevent infection), which announced dramatically different results last year. In April 2011, the Read More >>

viaFenway Health Pre-exposure chemoprophylaxis (PrEP)—taking antiretroviral medications to prevent HIV transmission—could be a “game changer” for HIV prevention. PrEP has demonstrated partial efficacy with men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, and heterosexuals in several recent studies. Recent modeling of PrEP implementation coupled with scaled up treatment predicts that PrEP could significantly reduce HIV incidence Read More >>