Not that kind of “injections beat pills”—this is a tougher kind of comparison.
The LATA trial led by UCL: five clinics in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe enrolled 476 adolescents aged 12 to 19 who already had viral suppression. They were randomly assigned to either daily tablets or a long-acting injection once every eight weeks (cabotegravir + rilpivirine). After about 96 weeks, in the injection group only 2 people (about 1%) had confirmed viral rebound, versus 15 people (about 6%) in the tablet group. In the injection group, 94% said it was much easier than having to take pills every day.
The boundaries were spelled out as well: those enrolled were people who had been taking pills for more than a year without treatment failure; most had had HIV since birth. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution for people who are not yet virally suppressed. Patent pricing, cold-chain storage, nurse scheduling—most African clinics still can’t make use of these things right now.
#HIV #medical research
The LATA trial led by UCL: five clinics in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe enrolled 476 adolescents aged 12 to 19 who already had viral suppression. They were randomly assigned to either daily tablets or a long-acting injection once every eight weeks (cabotegravir + rilpivirine). After about 96 weeks, in the injection group only 2 people (about 1%) had confirmed viral rebound, versus 15 people (about 6%) in the tablet group. In the injection group, 94% said it was much easier than having to take pills every day.
The boundaries were spelled out as well: those enrolled were people who had been taking pills for more than a year without treatment failure; most had had HIV since birth. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution for people who are not yet virally suppressed. Patent pricing, cold-chain storage, nurse scheduling—most African clinics still can’t make use of these things right now.
#HIV #medical research
