People taking the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) HIV-prevention pill Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) should proceed with caution as a second man has been infected by a rare strain of the virus while on the medication.
Truvada offers 99 percent protection from contracting HIV when the pills are taken daily. The patient’s hair and blood tests showed the appropriate levels for the pill, according to Buzzfeed.com.
He isn’t releasing his identity as a privacy measure. But the patient is a gay man who has a long-term partner that is HIV-positive. His partner is on medication and has an undetectable viral load in his body.
The patient’s test results were released at the 2016 HIV Research for Prevention conference in Chicago in October.
This is the second documented case involving infection while on daily Truvada. The first case was announced in February, according to Buzzfeed.com.
“We know PrEP is not 100 percent effective, and that’s something we need to be saying loudly and clearly,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, was quoted saying on Buzzfeed.com. “No prevention method – other than abstinence – is.”
Experts say the patient contracted a drug-resistant strain of HIV. This new strain doesn’t match his partner’s – so he must have contracted the virus during sex with another person, according to researchers.
PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a medication for HIV-negative people who are engaging in sex with a person who is HIV-positive. Studies show that daily PrEP use can lower the chance of contracting HIV by more than 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
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Though the pill is a highly effective prevention method, experts say it is even more effective when used with condoms and other safety measures. People on Truvada should get tested for HIV every three months and talk to their physician regularly about how the medication is treating the body.
