HIV positive patients taking a cocktail of pills each day to manage the disease may soon be able to switch to a monthly injection following successful trials. Currently most people infected with HIV take a combination of three or more tablets per day to prevent the virus replicating and triggering Aids. But in clinical trials an injection of two anti-retroviral drugs - cabotegravir and rilpirivine - was found to be just as effective as the standard treatment.
HIV positive patients taking a cocktail of pills each day to manage the disease may soon be able to switch to a monthly injection following successful trials. Currently most people infected with HIV take a combination of three or more tablets per day to prevent the virus replicating and triggering Aids. But in clinical trials an injection of two anti-retroviral drugs - cabotegravir and rilpirivine - was found to be just as effective as the standard treatment.
At present it has to be administered by a nurse or doctor, but researchers are hoping that future versions could be self-injected. Dr John Pottage, chief scientific and medical officer at ViiV Healthcare, the specialist pharmaceutical company running the trial, said: “This novel approach is another step towards potentially reducing the treatment burden for people living with HIV. “If approved, this regimen would give people living with HIV one month between each dose of antiretroviral therapy, changing HIV treatment from 365 dosing days per year to just 12."
SameDayDoctor offers testing and treatment for HIV. We offer pre exposure and post exposure prophylaxis (PEP and PrEP) and management of HIV positive patients with CD4 counts and other ongoing blood test monitoring and antiretroviral medication prescriptions.
