via Aidsmap, by Roger Pebody
Seeking to understand why adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was extremely high in a study of serodiscordant couples, qualitative researchers have found that trial participants saw PrEP as a way they could preserve their relationship despite the pressures created by the knowledge of different HIV status and the risk of infection.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a novel HIV-prevention strategy in which HIV-negative people take antiretroviral drugs before possible exposure to HIV, to lower the risk of infection.
Several studies suggest that PrEP is biologically efficacious. However, a major challenge for the real-world effectiveness of PrEP is that it relies on people who are not ill taking medication on a daily basis. Adherence has turned out to be less than perfect in some of the studies: for example, in the iPrEx trial of men who have sex with men, only around half actually took the drugs as prescribed.
However, adherence was significantly better in the Partners PrEP study, which recruited HIV-negative people who were in a stable heterosexual relationship with an HIV-positive person (i.e. they were in a ‘serodiscordant’ relationship), in Kenya or Uganda. Based on pill counts at the prescribing clinic, 97% of prescribed doses were taken. Based on unannounced pill counts at home, 99% of doses were taken. As a result, PrEP was more effective in this population.
In order to better understand why and how these near-perfect levels of adherence were achieved, Norma Ware and colleagues conducted in-depth interviews with 60 of the Partners PrEP trial participants in rural Uganda. Most interviews (45) were conducted with HIV-negative people taking PrEP, while 15 were with their HIV-positive partners. Just over half the participants were men, their average age was 35 and most had been study participants for over a year.
These were long-term relationships, with an average duration of just under ten years. Four out of five couples had children together. However, in most couples the HIV-positive partner was only diagnosed with HIV a few months before the PrEP study began.
Discovery that one partner was HIV-positive while the other was not created a crisis for most couples. HIV-negative partners felt hurt, angry and betrayed by the evidence of infidelity that infection represented to them, and threatened by the prospect of their partner’s imminent illness and premature death. Infected partners, for their part, feared “dying alone.”
Tensions developed, sometimes escalating into violence. Some relationships came close to fracturing under the strain.
Read the rest.
[Content that is linked from other sources is for informational purposes and should not construe a Mapping Pathways position.]
Seeking to understand why adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was extremely high in a study of serodiscordant couples, qualitative researchers have found that trial participants saw PrEP as a way they could preserve their relationship despite the pressures created by the knowledge of different HIV status and the risk of infection. In an article published online ahead of print last week in the Journal of Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndromes, Norma Ware and colleagues also report that the support of study staff and of HIV-positive partners was crucial in supporting adherence.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a novel HIV-prevention strategy in which HIV-negative people take antiretroviral drugs before possible exposure to HIV, to lower the risk of infection.
Several studies suggest that PrEP is biologically efficacious. However, a major challenge for the real-world effectiveness of PrEP is that it relies on people who are not ill taking medication on a daily basis. Adherence has turned out to be less than perfect in some of the studies: for example, in the iPrEx trial of men who have sex with men, only around half actually took the drugs as prescribed.
However, adherence was significantly better in the Partners PrEP study, which recruited HIV-negative people who were in a stable heterosexual relationship with an HIV-positive person (i.e. they were in a ‘serodiscordant’ relationship), in Kenya or Uganda. Based on pill counts at the prescribing clinic, 97% of prescribed doses were taken. Based on unannounced pill counts at home, 99% of doses were taken. As a result, PrEP was more effective in this population.
In order to better understand why and how these near-perfect levels of adherence were achieved, Norma Ware and colleagues conducted in-depth interviews with 60 of the Partners PrEP trial participants in rural Uganda. Most interviews (45) were conducted with HIV-negative people taking PrEP, while 15 were with their HIV-positive partners. Just over half the participants were men, their average age was 35 and most had been study participants for over a year.
These were long-term relationships, with an average duration of just under ten years. Four out of five couples had children together. However, in most couples the HIV-positive partner was only diagnosed with HIV a few months before the PrEP study began.
Discovery that one partner was HIV-positive while the other was not created a crisis for most couples. HIV-negative partners felt hurt, angry and betrayed by the evidence of infidelity that infection represented to them, and threatened by the prospect of their partner’s imminent illness and premature death. Infected partners, for their part, feared “dying alone.”
Tensions developed, sometimes escalating into violence. Some relationships came close to fracturing under the strain.
Read the rest.
[Content that is linked from other sources is for informational purposes and should not construe a Mapping Pathways position.]
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