PrEP can help us end HIV

It’s not often that a drug’s product information sheet would be cause for excitement, let alone celebration, writes AFAO Executive Director Darryl O'Donell. 

Yet just as experts met in Sydney on 6 May to discuss HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, Australia’s drug regulator quietly changed the product sheet for the drug Truvada to approve its use to prevent HIV.

This change by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration means that doctors can now write a script for Truvada and it can be dispensed at a chemist. This is groundbreaking because it means Australia’s drug technocrats have said that Truvada is safe, and that it works in preventing sexual transmission of HIV.  

TasP and PrEP: AFAO Members Forum

The afternoon session on day one of the AFAO Members Forum involved robust discussions about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention (TasP). 

Presentations looked at key areas including research, clinical guidelines, regulation and advocacy, both in Australia and the international context.

TasP panel discussion. L-R: Colin Batrouney (VAC), Cam Cox (Scarlet Alliance),
Bridget Haire (AFAO), Robert Mitchell (NAPWHA), Karen Price (ACON)

24 July: Tuesday (Post) Exposure

Edwina Wright and Dean Murphy

For me, Tuesday was particularly exciting because there were many sessions on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. In anticipation of this I breakfasted with Edwina Wright, ASHM president, with whom I had been working to develop a proposal to study how PrEP might be implemented in Australia.

A new terminology has entered PrEP discourse, which relates to 'seasonal' use. Seasonal use refers to using PrEP for limited periods—months or weeks—at times of greatest risk or need. Such sporadic use raises concerns about drug resistance and onward transmission of drug resistance. So there is a need for PrEP users to be aware of the symptoms of HIV seroconversion.

Framework for country-level PrEP demonstration projects being developed

Now that there is evidence of the efficacy of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) we need to determine the best way to deliver PrEP in the 'real world' and to gather evidence of its effectiveness from countries where it is rolled out. At a meeting organised by the World Health Organisation and attended by the UNAIDS, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the investigators of the PrEP studies, participants started developing a country-level protocol development framework for PrEP demonstration projects.

Impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference

"Liberty leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix,
was a popular trigger for musings on the meanings
of  the prevention 'revolution' - she featured on the slides
of four presenters. 

These are some impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference held late May. The conference was a place for many discussions. The development of  new HIV prevention options that can be added to our existing tools  was described as a 'revolution' by some, and as an 'evolution' by others. Whether it is thought of as a revolution or an evolution, several major ways to intensify HIV prevention were discussed throughout the conference.