AHF: PrEP Patient’s Drug-resistant HIV Infection; Bone Loss, Fractures in Others, Suggest Caution

No mention of condom use—as FDA guidelines for PrEP indicate—in the
report on PrEP incident presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and
Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston.

On the heels of the CDC’s recent recommendation that 1.2 million
high-risk Americans go on PrEP, AHF expresses concern about a more drug
resistant strain of HIV entering the community-at-large.

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–An article in POZ
Magazine today reported that for the first time, an individual on
the HIV-prevention protocol pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for over
two years not only became infected with HIV, but became infected with a
drug resistant strain of the virus. In a case presented at the 2016
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)
in Boston, researchers found that a 43 year-old man whose blood serum
levels suggested had been adherent to the medication portion of the HIV
prevention regimen nevertheless became infected with HIV and that “…
his drug resistance had been transmitted from another person, rather
than acquired post-transmission.”

There was no mention of condom use—as FDA guidelines for PrEP
indicate—in the report on the case at CROI.

In addition, a day earlier at CROI, other presentations documented bone
fractures among HIV patients taking tenofovir and bone
loss—albeit reversible—associated with the use of tenofovir in
pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

“Due to issues surrounding medication adherence with PrEP, AHF has
always been concerned about the potential for overall spread of the
virus as well as other STDs for which PrEP offers no protection,” said Michael
Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has
criticized and cautioned against the widespread deployment of PrEP as a
community wide public health strategy, such as the CDC’s recommendation
that 1.2 million Americans be put on PrEP, but supports its use on a
case-by-case basis decided upon between a medical provider and his or
her patient. “Now, on the heels of this drug resistant infection found
in one individual who appeared to be adherent with the drug portion of
his PrEP regimen, a larger concern is about the potential for a more
drug resistant strain of HIV entering the community-at-large.”

In November 2015, the CDC
recommended that 1.2 million high-risk Americans go on PrEP. At the
time, USA
Today reported that the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that three years after the FDA
first approved the use of Gilead
Sciences’ successful HIV/AIDS treatment medication, Truvada,
for pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission in uninfected
individuals, just 21,000 people were on PrEP today in the U.S.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over
594,000 individuals in 35 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn
more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare
and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

Contacts

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea
Senior Director,
Communications
+1.323.308.1833 work
+1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Jacqueline
Burbank,
Manager of Sales & Marketing
+1.323.208.1505
mobile
Jacqueline.burbank@aidshealth.org