There’s been a lot of talk in the media recently about a medication that can be used to prevent HIV transmission.  It’s a drug called Truvada, taken as a once daily pill, and is a combination of 2 different anti-retroviral drugs – tenofovir and emtricitabine.  These are 2 of the 3 main ingredients in the drug Atripla which many people take to treat HIV.

Truvada has recently been approved by the FDA in the Unites States as a preventive treatment in high risk groups such as sex workers and people who have a positive partner.  There have been calls for Australia to immediately follow suit and approve it for this use here.

However there are some important concerns about the use of Truvada as a way of protecting an individual from catching HIV. Firstly, in all of the studies in which Truvada was shown to dramatically lower transmission rates, participants were encouraged to use condoms and practice safe sex.  There is no study where people were shown to be protected using Truvada if they weren’t using condoms as well.  Many media reports seem to have conveniently left out this very important information.  There is a real risk that people taking the drug may develop a false sense of security that they are completely safe from HIV, and they may end up engaging in more risky behaviour.

Secondly, some experts are worried about the possibility that widespread Truvada use in the community may lead to drug resistant virus becoming more common.  Since Truvada is one of the main drugs we use to treat people with HIV, this is a very worrying thought.