HIV prevention may only require two injections per year

There were no new infections among the more than 2,100 women and girls who received twice-yearly lenacapavir, researchers from the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences report online July 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine. There were 16 new infections among the close to 1,100 taking the daily PrEP pill Truvada, the first-ever PrEP option, which became available in 2012. The trial results were also presented July 24 at the 2024 International AIDS Conference in Munich.

Young women and adolescent girls from sub-Saharan Africa are among the groups at high risk for HIV infection. Of the 4,000 young women and adolescent girls ages 15 to 24 who became infected with HIV globally each week in 2023, on average, around 75 percent were from sub-Saharan Africa, according to The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Studies have found that young women and teens are open to PrEP but that there are barriers to using the preventive medicine. The stigma surrounding HIV casts a shadow on PrEP. Some women fear that in taking the drugs others will assume they are HIV positive (SN: 12/1/20). And the daily pill regimen can be difficult to continue.