A rare case of a man who takes an HIV-Prevention pill on a Regular basis had eventually contracted the virus making him the first ever reported infection of someone who is on a regular medication to prevent the virus according to researchers. The report from Maple Leaf Medical Clinic in Toronto says that a 43-yrs-old man who had sex with other me. was infected despite taking Truvada for 24 months. According to a report from Poz.com, its believed to have encountered a rare strain of the virus that’s resistant to the two medicines that makes up Truvada. The virus is believed to have been drug-resistant when it was contracted rather than evolving resistance after transmission.
Truvada is supposed to reduce the rate of transmission of the HIV virus by at least 90+%, Poz cites current research as putting it above 99% if taken four tines a week. So news of its failure is a surprise. It doesn’t entirely mean the drug is ineffective on the virus but
. “I certainly don’t think that this is a situation which calls for panic,”
“It is an example that demonstrates that PrEP [Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, the use of drugs to prevent infection] can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus, in the same way that treatment itself can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus.”
says Richard Harrigan, an HIV researcher who worked on the study, according toPoz.
