New research suggests periodic injection of Truvada could protect against HIV

The results of two separate studies suggest that an injection of HIV medication Truvada every one to three months could protect people from infection.

Truvada is currently available by prescription as a daily oral medication to help protect those most "at risk" from HIV infection.

Recent studies of a new, long-acting injectable form of the drug showed strong promise for long-term protection.

From Yahoo News:

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave six monkeys shots of the drug every four weeks; six others got dummy shots. All were exposed to the virus twice a week for 11 weeks.

The monkeys who got the fake treatment were readily infected "but the animals that received the long-acting drug remained protected," said study leader Gerardo Garcia-Lerma of the CDC.

The results mirror what was seen in the CDC's early research in monkeys on Truvada, the pill that's available for HIV prevention now.

In the second study, Chasity Andrews and others at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University in New York gave eight monkeys two shots of the drug, four weeks apart, and dummy shots to eight others. The animals were exposed to the virus weekly for eight weeks. Again, all animals given the fake treatment were quickly infected and those on the drug were all protected.

To see how long a single shot would last, they did a second study. The single shot protected 12 monkeys for about 10 weeks on average.

The dose used in a single shot corresponded to what people would get from a shot every three months, researchers said.

"This is really promising," said Dr. Judith Currier, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The research "supports moving this forward" into human testing, she said.

This is obviously very exciting news. I will say, though, that at this point in time the best way to avoid infection from HIV and other STDs is to use a condom regularly.

Until we have the absolute green light from the scientific/medical powers that be, play safe!