Injectable AIDS drug may work ‘as well’ as pills: study
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A two-drug cocktail injected every month or two may be just as effective as a daily pill at keeping the AIDS virus under control a study has revealed.
At present people have no option but to take lifelong, daily doses of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) which keeps the HIV virus under control, but does not kill it.
In an ongoing study, nearly 300 HIV-positive people were given an initial course of daily pills to bring the virus under control. Once this was achieved, some continued taking oral treatment as maintenance while the rest were shifted on to the prototype, injectable ARV, given every four or eight weeks.
At 96 weeks, the virus was still subdued in 84 percent of the pill-taking group, 87 percent in the four-weekly injectable group, and 94 percent in the eight-weekly group. The results were published in The Lancet medical journal.
In 2016, there were 36.7 million people living with HIV of whom 19.5 million had access to ART, according to UNAIS. The UN recommends ART for all HIV-positive people.
“The introduction of single-tablet medication represented a leap forward in ART dosing, and long-active anti-retroviral injections may represent the next revolution in HIV therapy by providing an option that circumvents the burden of daily dosing,” said study co-author David Margo lis of ViiV Healthcare. “Adherence to medication remains an important challenge in HIV treatment.”
Some in the trial group experienced mild or moderate pain at the injection site, two of whom stopped getting the shots, which contain a mix of cabotegravir and rilpivirine. Other side-effects, included diarrhoea and headaches
“Trials are ongoing and are needed to confirm the results,” the researchers said.
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