 
December 21, 2009
CDC Switches Direction of Botswana PrEP Trial
A study already underway in
Botswana regarding the usefulness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is being
adjusted to account for the dropping HIV rates in that country, Reuters reports.
PrEP is being studied around the
world to determine whether low, daily doses of HIV medications can be used to
safeguard HIV-negative people from contracting the virus. The Botswana trials
involved Gilead Science’s Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir),
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“We are not giving up on the trial—we are going to complete
the trial. We just will not get all of the answers we set out to get,” Terry
Butler, the CDC’s director of strategic communications, told Reuters. “The
trial protocol and timeline will be revised to focus instead on the other
remaining study questions—primarily behavioral and clinical safety and
adherence.”
According to the article, the
study—called TDF2—must change directions to account for dropping HIV infection
rates in Botswana, where close to a quarter of adults are already living with
the virus. Additionally, researchers are having difficulty keeping people
enrolled in the trial.
“The drops in incidence that we
are seeing in Botswana and elsewhere are welcome news, requiring new and
innovative ways of designing, running and funding trials and of working with
communities,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy
for HIV Prevention.
Search: Botswana, pre-exposure prophylaxsis, PrEP
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