There’s a new drug being used in an effort to diminish HIV rates.
Human immunodeficiency virus became a reportable disease in the US in 1999, a few years after the retroviral medications had been released. HIV and STD program manager for the State of Alaska Department of Health Susan Jones says once medications became available, reporting became important so that there was a way to try to prevent the development of AIDs.
“Now it’s even more important for HIV because of the new paradigm shift in the treatment of HIV and that if somebody is on retroviral for HIV they’re no longer as likely to transmit the virus. Treatment is equal to prevention and that’s been the trend for years.”
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services released a bulletin (today) Tuesday detailing a new strategy for preventing HIV. Truvada is daily medication approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to be used in combination with safer sex practices. The drug would help prevent HIV in those test HIV-negative.
According to a report released at the beginning of the month, the number of people with HIV in Alaska went up from 50 in 2012 to 59 in 2013. However, that doesn’t take into account the amount of people who may have left the state. Of those 59 cases in 2013, 24 were new diagnoses. For the year 2014, as of May 31, 2014 there have been 23 cases of HIV reported in Alaska.
Jones says those who already have one or more STD are already more susceptible to HIV.
“Any sexually transmitted disease or any infection in the genital area would make you more susceptible to HIV. HIV infects the body’s immune cells, those are the cells that go in to fight infection. If you have a chlamydia infection and you have a lot of your immune cells down at the site of your infection and you have sex with somebody with HIV, the cells that HIV targets are right there and a lot of them.”
The bulletin suggests people take Truvada if they are having an ongoing sexual relationship with some who has HIV; gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men who have had sex without a condom or been diagnosed with an STD in the last six months; heterosexual men and women who don’t always use condoms with those who may be infected; anyone who injects illicit drugs. For more information go to the State of Alaska Epidemiology website at www.epi.Alaska.gov.