PrEP Remains Protective Even if Used Not Regularly
«Ipergay» company investigated a research to find how effective PrEP could be and concluded that even it’s irregular usage protects human from HIV.
The substudy was done because although Ipergay was a trial to see if PrEP worked only when taken as needed, some commenters, and indeed the trial researchers themselves, noted that a lot of Ipergay participants were having sex and taking PrEP so often that they were effectively taking it almost daily. The Ipergay regimen involved taking a double dose of PrEP in the 24 hours before sex risking HIV infection was anticipated, and then taking a pill on each of the following two days; the regimen therefore covered three days, so anyone who was regularly having sex that risked HIV more than twice a week was almost taking full-time PrEP anyway, as the aidsmap.com reported.
“Although the number of person-hours in this substudy was small, we hope it will add to the evidence that on-demand PrEP is effective. Now that more than 3000 people are taking PrEP through the public health system in France, with over half of them taking it on demand, we expect to see more evidence of its effectiveness.” - said Jean-Michel Molina, principal investigator from the «Ipergay»
Antoni G et al. On-demand PrEP with TDF/FTC remains highly effective among MSM with infrequent sexual intercourse: a sub-study of the ANRS IPERGAY trial. 9th International AIDS Society Conference, Paris, abstract number TUAC0102, July 2017.