A new study has come up with a breakthrough result in the world of AIDS which suggests that two jabs of an injection can prevent the disease.
According to the results, which were published on Wednesday (July 24), the shots which are given twice every year to treat AIDS are also 100 percent effective in preventing any new infections in women.
The researchers found no infections in the young girls and women who were jabbed as part of the study. Nearly 5,000 women were administered the injection in South Africa and Uganda.
In one group which was given prevention pills daily, around 2 per cent used to catch HIV from infected sex partners.
Director of an AIDS research centre in Durban, South Africa Salim Abdool Karim said, “To see this level of protection is stunning.”
US drugmaker Gilead made the injections which were sold as Sunlenca after approval in the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries. However, it was sold only as a treatment for HIV.
The company said that they had been waiting for the results of tests being carried out on men before getting permission to use this jab as a protection against infection.
The results found in women were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and later spoken about at the AIDS conference in Munich on Wednesday (July 24).
Due to the encouraging results, the study was halted early and all the participants were given the shots called lenacapavir.
Will this jab be affordable for common people?
There are other ways in which HIV infection can be prevented like daily pills and condoms, however, their consistent use has been an issue in Africa.
Thandeka Nkosi, who assisted Gilead research at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in Masiphumelele, South Africa, said that the possibility of a twice-a-year shot is “quite revolutionary news”.
“It gives participants a choice and it just eliminates the whole stigma around taking pills” to prevent HIV, he said.
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The experts are excited about this revolutionary shot but are concerned that Gilead has not yet agreed to provide them at an affordable price, especially to those who need them the most.
The company said it would carry out a “voluntary licensing program” in which some of the generic producers will be allowed to make them.
Geneva-based U.N. AIDS agency executive director Winnie Byanyima said, “Gilead has a tool that could change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic.”
(With inputs from agencies)