Overall Benefits of PrEP as a Strategy Still Unclear

A trial comparing tenofovir microbicide with oral PrEP for HIV prevention is dropping the oral arm before the trial completion date. A monitoring board decided that it would not be possible to demonstrate any difference in effect between tenofovir PrEP and a placebo in preventing HIV infections. Other arms of the trial will continue.

Pharmaceutical industry front group AVAC's Warren Mitchell has expressed disappointment. But adverse publicity about PrEP is unlikely to be publicized as widely as the spin associated with favorable results, or results that can be dressed up as favorable. So far, it is the effectiveness of PrEP in preventing HIV transmission to women that is still in question. Women account for the majority of infections in young people in high prevalence African countries.

The HIV industry has still failed to show that PrEP, microbicide and various methods said to reduce HIV transmission do so in the specific case of sexual transmission. It is possible that drugs like Tenofovir also protect against non-sexual transmission, such as through unsafe healthcare and cosmetic services. But even if PrEP does protect against non-sexual transmission, it will not be the most appropriate strategy in these instances.

The best way to provide safe healthcare and cosmetic services is to ensure that strict hygiene and infection control procedures are followed, something the industry has long resisted. Separating any effect PrEP and microbicides may have on non-sexual transmission modes from its effects on sexual transmission modes would seem like a smart move. After all, there is little point in targeting populations who will not benefit from it; but nor is there much point in developing a strategy that is entirely inappropriate, even when that is where it may produce the best results.

The trials, the wishful thinking and the spin continue.