New studies prove the effectiveness of the anti-HIV pill in the United States. Prevention of the virus is done through the antiretroviral Truvada. The new results of research with the drug were published this Thursday (13) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The study included the participation of three Brazilian research centers.
The conclusion is that daily use of the pill would not be necessary to have an effective result in preventing AIDS. Two doses per week would be able to reduce the risk of infection by 76%. Four weekly doses would guarantee 96% protection. And seven weekly doses would reduce the risk by 99%.
"Surprisingly, we found that study participants did not have to adhere perfectly to the therapeutic regimen to reap the benefits of Truvada," said American researcher Robert Grant, from the Gladstone Institute, an organization dedicated to biomedical research linked to the University of California.
"The possibility of using fewer doses makes the strategy cheaper. It also has implications in relation to side effects, which would be smaller. In this case, the fewer the better", says doctor Valdiléa Veloso dos Santos, from the Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
However, researchers indicate that daily use of Truvada is recommended to ensure full protection.
The pill is recommended for healthy men who have sex with other men. Experts believe that its use should come together with medical advice and that other prevention practices should not be discarded, such as the use of condoms and frequent testing for HIV and other STDs.
