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Despite New Long-Term Options, People Still Prefer Daily PrEP Pill to Prevent HIV

New ways to deliver drugs that prevent infection with HIV are out there, but many people still prefer the standard daily PrEP pill, a new study shows.

“The oral pill is very efficacious when people take it every day, and it really has the potential to curb HIV transmission in the country and play a key role in ending the HIV epidemic,” said

  • Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
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  • October 3, 2023
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  • Gene Could Lower HIV Levels in Some People of African Descent

    A newly discovered genetic variant might explain why some people of African ancestry have naturally lower viral loads of HIV, an international team of researchers reports.

    This variant, carried by an estimated 4% to 13% of people of African origin, reduces their risk of transmitting the virus and slows the progress of their own illness.

    It's the first new genetic variant related to ...

    Long Targeted in Abortion Battle, U.S. Global AIDS Program Gets New Home in State Department

    The President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that's long successfully provided relief to people with AIDS around the world, will now be housed within the U.S. State Department.

    The move comes after years of pressure by anti-abortion groups and some Republican members of Congress to attach abortion-related limits on U.S. health support overseas, including PEPFAR. ...

    Hip Replacements No Riskier for Folks Living With HIV

    Hip replacement surgery is safe for HIV patients, a new study shows.

    Some surgeons are reluctant to perform total hip replacement surgery on patients with HIV or AIDS, because of concerns about complications, including higher risk of infection, need for repeated surgery and longer hospital stay.

    "Patients living with HIV are at a higher risk for orthopedic-related diseases such as o...

    A Statin a Day Keeps Heart Trouble Away for Those With HIV

    Heart disease is a high risk for people with HIV, but a new study finds that taking statins significantly reduces the risk of serious heart incidents.

    People with HIV who took a daily statin pill lowered their risk of stroke, heart attack or surgery to open clogged arteries by 35%, a clinical trial funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found.

    Statins have the potential t...

    HIV Meds Help Slash Infection Risk to Nearly Zero: Study

    People taking antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV who have low but detectable virus levels have almost zero risk of transmitting the virus to others, according to a new research review.

    Researchers looked at eight studies of more than 7,700 couples in which one person was HIV positive and the other was not. The studies were done in 25 countries and reviewed by teams from the Global Health...

    European Man May Be 6th Person to Be 'Cured' of HIV

    It's rare for someone with HIV to go into remission and be considered "cured," but a European man may be the sixth to do so.

    First diagnosed with HIV in 1990, the man had been taking antiretroviral drugs since 2005 and received a stem cell transplant two years ago to treat a rare type of blood cancer.

    Known as the “Geneva patient,” the Swiss man in his 50s is one of only six peo...

    Long-Acting, Injected HIV Meds Can Help Tough-to-Treat Patients

    For nearly three decades, daily antiretroviral pills have offered patients living with HIV a highly effective way to keep their infection under control.

    But some patients, particularly those beset by homelessness, drug addiction and/or mental illness, find it very difficult to follow a daily pill routine due to the “competing priorities in their life, like getting food and shelter, or i...

    PrEP Implant That Protects Against HIV Could Be Near

    Animal research is pointing toward a new way to prevent HIV infection: a refillable implant that continuously delivers antiretroviral medications for up to 20 months at a time.

    Antiretrovirals are the cornerstone of PrEP, an infection prevention protocol that has been around since 2010.

    But the new approach -- though so far only tested in rhesus macaque monkeys -- promises an even m...

    Meningitis Cases Rising Among Gay Men With HIV

    Meningococcal disease -- which includes meningitis -- appears to be on the rise among Americans infected with HIV, new research reveals.

    Researchers stress that the risk to any one person remains exceedingly rare, regardless of their HIV status.

    Each year between 2017 and 2021 HIV-positive patients accounted for five to 15 cases of the bacterial disease, which typically shows up as ...

    HIV Infections Continue to Decline Among Young Americans

    HIV infection numbers in the United States are down, public health officials announced Tuesday.

    Declines in young people are driving the overall decrease.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed an overall 12% decline between ...

    New Clues to Why Some People Suppress HIV Without Drugs

    Some HIV patients are naturally able to keep the virus fully in check without any medicinal help, a phenomenon that has intrigued scientists for decades.

    New research appears to identify at least one reason why: an abnormally powerful version of an infection-fighting white blood cell called CD8+ T cell.

    CD8+ T cell's are a type of T cell, a normal feature in everyone's immune s...

    FDA Eases Rules on Gay Men Donating Blood

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday finalized the elimination of certain restrictions that prevented healthy gay and bisexual men from donating blood.

    Instead of requiring men who have sex with men or the women who have sex with them to abstain for sexual contact for three months, the FDA has created an individual risk assessment for all donors.

    These questions are m...

    Kids Whose Moms Took HIV Meds While Pregnant May Be at Higher Risk for Developmental Delays

    Children whose mothers took antiretroviral medication for HIV while pregnant may have higher risks for developmental delays at age 5, according to new research.

    Nonetheless, researchers said it's important for women with HIV to take antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy to prevent HIV transmission to their fetus. Women who have HIV and know it should start on antiretroviral therapy in c...

    Statins Cut Heart Risks for Folks Living With HIV

    As people with HIV live longer they're at risk of premature heart disease. But a new study finds statin drugs can cut the risk of serious heart problems by more than one-third.

    The U.S. National Institutes of Health trial found the cholesterol-lowering drugs so effective, in fact, that the study was stopped early.

    Taking the daily statin pitavastatin calcium lowered the risk of majo...

    Scientists Get Closer to Understanding 'Hidden' HIV

    Researchers are closing in on another immune system “hideout” that HIV uses to persist in the human body for years.

    A subset of white blood cells called myeloid cells can harbor HIV in people who've been virally suppressed for years, according to a new small-scale study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

    The researchers showed that HIV in specific myeloid ce...

    U.S. Effort to Fight HIV Worldwide Has Brought Lifesaving Treatment to Millions

    Since it began in 2004, a global effort led by the United States to combat HIV has dramatically increased the number of people it helps, a new government report shows.

    In its report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the number of people receiving lifesaving HIV treatment through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has increased 300 tim...

    Mpox Can Be Fatal for People With Advanced HIV

    The mpox virus -- formerly known as monkeypox -- often causes severe illness and death in those with advanced HIV infection that is not under control, researchers report.

    What does that mean? All people diagnosed with mpox should also be tested for HIV, the investigators said.

    The international collaboration of scientists also recommends that the World Health Organization and the U....

    Rectal Pill May Give Days-Long Protection Against HIV: Study

    Could a quick-dissolving pill placed in the rectum prove to be an effective and safe “on-demand” way to prevent HIV infection among sexually active men and women?

    It might, new research indicates.

    The experimental form of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is designed to be placed directly into either the rectum or the vagina. In the new study, conducted among 21 men and women, it...

    10 Years on, Stem Cell Transplant May Have Cured Patient of HIV

    A man who underwent a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer is showing "strong evidence" that the procedure also cured him of HIV -- the latest in a handful of cases doctors have reported.

    The patient, a man in his 50s, was HIV-positive when he underwent a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia. The procedure effectively gave him a new immune system -- critically, from a donor who had ...

    FDA Could Ease Blood Donation Rules for Gay Men

    Longstanding restrictions on blood donations from gay or bisexual men could soon shift towards a more nuanced policy, where such men are asked about sexual partners and practices instead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

    Specifically, gay men who are in monogamous relationships will no longer be required to abstain from sex for any period of time before donating to ...

    Another Major HIV Vaccine Trial Fails

    In yet another setback for the future of HIV prevention, the only HIV vaccine in a late-stage trial has failed, study leaders announced Wednesday.

    Launched in 2019 as a partnership between the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical giant Janssen, the Mosaico trial was being conducted in eight European nations and the Americas, including the United States. Researchers had enrolled nearly 3...

    Scientists May Be Closer to Effective HIV Vaccine

    It's thought that for an HIV vaccine to be widely effective, it will have to spur the body to make special antibodies that can neutralize a broad range of HIV strains. Now scientists say they have taken an essential step in that direction.

    In an early study, researchers found that an experimental HIV va...

    On World AIDS Day, White House Announces Plan to End Epidemic by 2030

    The United States will renew its focus on ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, with new funding and a five-year strategy, the White House said Thursday.

    The Biden administration announced its ambitious p...

    Gut Microbes Could Play Role in HIV Infection

    Could key differences in the trillions of bacteria found in the human gut actually affect the risk of becoming infected with HIV? A small, new study suggests the answer may be yes.

    The intriguing possibility stems from a detailed analysis of the gut bacteria ("

  • Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter
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  • October 4, 2022
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  • HIV & Hepatitis Can Be Deadly Combo for the Heart

    As people with HIV age, their odds for heart attack rise -- and those with untreated hepatitis C have an even higher risk, a new study finds.

    "HIV and hepatitis C co-infection occurs because they share a transmission route -- both viruses may be transmitted through blood-to-blood contac...

    STD Cases Soar in US Amid Calls for Better Prevention Efforts

    Soaring numbers of sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases have prompted U.S. public health experts to call for more prevention and treatment.

    This includes rising rates of syphilis and gonorrhea and

  • By Cara Murez and Robin Foster HealthDay Reporters
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  • September 20, 2022
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  • Texas Judge Says Obamacare Can't Require Coverage for Meds That Prevent HIV

    Hundreds of thousands of Americans take medications intended to prevent infection with HIV, but a federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires free coverage of the drugs violates the religious beliefs of a Christian-owned company.

    U.S. District J...

    COVID Crisis Has Stalled Fight Against HIV/AIDS

    Efforts to end the global HIV epidemic have slowed as money and attention go toward fighting COVID-19, new report shows.

    "This is an alarm to the world to say that COVID-19 has blown the AIDS response significantly off track," Matthew Kavanaugh, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, said of the

    HIV Testing Plummeted During Pandemic

    Testing for HIV suffered a sharp setback during the first year of the pandemic, new government data shows.

    The number of HIV tests funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administered in health care settings dropped 43% between 2019 and 2020, the study showed. Tests administered in non-he...

    Pets Have Helped People With HIV Through Two Pandemics

    Pets have helped people weather both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics, a survey of long-term HIV/AIDS survivors shows.

    "The underlying question in our minds has always been: What role do pets play for people who are so isolated and suffering so much stigma?" said study leader Lynette Hart, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis.

    She and her coll...

    New Approach Cuts Odds for Anal Cancer in People With HIV

    Treating precancerous anal growths in people with HIV slashes their risk of anal cancer by more than half, according to a new study.

    Researchers found that treating these growths - called high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) - is a safe a...

    COVID Breakthrough Infections More Likely in People Living With HIV

    Even after vaccination, living with HIV ups the odds for COVID infection, new research shows.

    The study found that vaccinated people living with HIV have a 28% higher risk of developing a "breakthrough" COVID infection compared to those who don't have the AIDS-causing virus.

    That's the bad news. But there's good news, too: The overall risk for COVID infection among people vaccinate...

    Could HIV Meds Help Slow Advanced Cancers?

    The introduction of HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) in the mid-1990s revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS, halting disease progression and dramatically extending lives.

    Now, a small new study suggests another potential use for one of the standard HAART medications: It halted disease p...

    HIV Meds May Also Shield Against COVID Infection

    Certain antiviral drugs used to treat HIV may also guard against COVID-19 infection, a new study suggests.

    The researchers found that people with HIV who are on antiretroviral treatment (

  • By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
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  • March 28, 2022
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  • FDA Approves First Condom Designed for Anal Sex

    The first condom specifically designed to prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections during anal sex has been approved for sale in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

    The One Male Condom can also be used to help reduce the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during vaginal intercourse.

    When having ana...

    Woman Cured of HIV After Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant

    A woman with HIV who received an umbilical cord blood transplant has become the third person in the world to be cured of the virus that causes AIDS.

    The two others, both men, were cured after receiving bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a mutation that blocks HIV, The New York Times reported.

    The woman -- who is of mixed race -- was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 a...

    More Destructive Variant of HIV Spotted in the Netherlands

    If the pandemic taught the world nothing else, it's that viruses can mutate, potentially giving rise to new and more harmful variants.

    Now, new research reveals that's exactly what has happened with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

    Called VB (for virulent subtype B), the "new" HIV variant actually seems to have emerged more than 30 ...

    First Shots Given in Trial of Moderna's mRNA-Based HIV Vaccine

    Vaccinations have been given to the first volunteers in a Phase 1 trial of Moderna's experimental HIV vaccine, the company has announced.

    The vaccine uses mRNA technology -- similar to that utilized in breakthrough COVID vaccines -- to deliver HIV-specific antigens that could trigger an immune response against the virus that causes AIDS, the company said in a

  • Robert Preidt and Robin Foster
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  • February 1, 2022
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  • Amid U.S. Blood Shortage, New Pressure to Ease Donor Rules for Gay Men

    A three-month sexual abstinence rule for blood donations from sexually active gay and bisexual men should be dropped by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, critics urge as the country struggles with a blood shortage.

    Right now, based on the slight chance of infection with HIV, men who have sex with men must abstain from sex with other men for 90 days before being eligible to donate blo...

    Once-a-Day HIV Pill Works Well for Kids

    An international trial found that a once-a-day antiretroviral medication for kids with HIV is not only cheap and easy to take, but also better at suppressing HIV than standard treatments.

    "Our findings provide strong evidence for the global rollout of dolutegravir for children with HIV," said Dr. Diana Gibb, a professor of epidemiology at University College London and a principal investig...

    FDA Approves First Injection Regimen for HIV Prevention

    The first injection drug to prevent HIV infection was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday.

    "Today's approval adds an important tool in the effort to end the HIV epidemic by providing the first option to prevent HIV that does not involve taking a daily pill," Dr. Debra Birnkrant, director of the Division of Antivirals in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Rese...

    People Living With HIV Face Higher Odds for Heart Failure

    People with HIV have an added risk of heart failure, so they and their health care providers need to be alert for early signs such as shortness of breath, fatigue, leg swelling, coughing and chest pain, according to a new study.

    “Cardiovascular disease has been an important concern for people with HIV for many, many years,” senior author Michael Silverberg said in a Kaiser Permanente ...

    An mRNA Vaccine Against HIV Shows Promise in Animal Trials

    Cutting-edge mRNA technology brought safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines to a world in crisis -- could it do the same for a much older foe, HIV?

    An experimental HIV vaccine that uses the same

  • Robert Preidt and Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporters
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  • December 10, 2021
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  • Stool Samples From the 1980s Hold Clues to Fighting HIV Today

    What do all the microbes living rent-free in your gut have to do with disease risk? Perhaps a lot.

    A groundbreaking analysis of decades-old stool and blood samples from the early AIDS epidemic suggests that men who had high levels of inflammation-causing bacteria in their intestin...

    Biden's New HIV/AIDS Strategy Calls Racism a Roadblock to Victory

    Racism is "a public health threat" that must be tackled to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Biden administration said Wednesday in announcing its new strategy to fight the disease.

    Over generations, “structural inequities have resulted in racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, far-reaching, and unacceptable," according to the strategy released on World AIDS Day, the ...

    WHO Approves First Long-Acting Device to Shield Women From HIV

    With HIV a continuing threat to women's health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the first long-acting device to protect women from sexually transmitted HIV.

    The device is a vaginal ring made of silicone elastomer, a flexible rubber-like material that makes it easy to insert and comfortable to use. The ring releases the antiretroviral drug dapivirine into the vagina slowly...

    HIV Rates Fall Among Gay White Americans, But Not Minorities

    Some progress has been made in the U.S. fight against HIV, with new infections falling among white gay and bisexual men over the past decade. But their Black and Hispanic counterparts did not see that advance, health officials say.

    The continuing inequities show up in a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    From 2010 to 2019, the number of new HIV infe...

    A Woman May Have Rid Herself Naturally of HIV -- But How?

    Researchers have identified a second HIV-positive person whose body might have naturally cleared the infection -- sparking hope that studying such exceedingly rare events will help lead to a cure.

    The researchers cautioned that they cannot prove the woman has fully eradicated the virus from her body, in what's known as a "sterilizing" cure.

    But in exhaustive tests of over 1.5 billio...

    U.S. Adolescents Are Getting Less Sex Education Now Than 25 Years Ago

    Sex Ed -- it's been a staple of public education for decades, but new research shows that only half of American teens are getting instruction that meets minimum standards.

    "The findings show that most adolescents are not receiving sex education that will enable them to manage their sexual lives," said study author Leslie Kantor, chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at Rut...