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Use of Antiretrovirals for HIV Prevention: What Do We Know and What Don’t We Know?

  • The Global Epidemic (Q Abdool Karim, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), in which HIV uninfected persons with ongoing HIV risk use antiretroviral medications as chemoprophylaxis against sexual HIV acquisition, is a promising new HIV prevention strategy. Proof-of-concept that PrEP, as oral or vaginal topical tenofovir-based products, protects against sexual HIV acquisition has been demonstrated in clinical trials conducted among men who have sex with men and heterosexual men and women. The degree of HIV protection in these trials was strongly related to the level of adherence to PrEP. Many questions are yet unanswered – including how to motivate uptake of and sustain adherence to PrEP for HIV prevention, how much PrEP use is enough to achieve HIV protection, and the potential of “next-generation” PrEP agents to improve on this effective technology.

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Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the funding support of US National Institutes of Health (R01 MH095507, R01 AI064002, R01 AI062333), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (grants 47674 and 48162) and Gladstone Institutes.

The authors have conducted research studies related to pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention supported with grant funding from the US National Institutes of Health, the US Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gilead Sciences provided study medication for these studies but did not provide funding to the authors or their institutions.

Conflict of Interest

Jared Baeten declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Robert Grant declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology, University of Washington, Box 359927, 325 Ninth Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA

    Jared M. Baeten

  2. Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco, 1650 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA

    Robert Grant

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  1. Jared M. Baeten
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Correspondence to Jared M. Baeten.

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Baeten, J.M., Grant, R. Use of Antiretrovirals for HIV Prevention: What Do We Know and What Don’t We Know?. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 10, 142–151 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-013-0157-9

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