a new injection every two months deemed effective to protect against it

Cabotegravir. This is the name of a new drug to fight against HIV, tested lduring a large clinical trial. And the first conclusions communicated by the researchers are particularly encouraging.

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To protect yourself from a HIV infection, there is already PrEP (for pre-exposure prophylaxis). However, if his discovery revolutionized the AIDS virus prevention and its effectiveness approaches 100%, taking a pill a day can be restrictive. Researchers from the American Institutes of Health (NIH) have therefore looked into an alternative, which, after three years of study, has proven to be effective: injecting a medicine called cabotegravir, to be done every eight weeks.

Even more effective than PrEP

Indeed, theAFP reports this May 18 preliminary results of a clinical trial carried out in seven countries with 4,500 people, more specifically men who have sex with men (MSM) as well as transgender people, most of whom are under 30 years old – that is to say groups most at risk in the face of the epidemic. Every two months, half of the participants received the cabotegravir injection with placebo PrEP pills, while the other half received the placebo injection and real pills.

All were therefore treated by one method or another. During the study, 50 HIV infections were recorded: 12 in the cabotegravir group, 38 in the second group. The new treatment developed therefore had 69% more effective than PrEP, yet already very efficient. Faced with these promising conclusions, the scientists prematurely ended the blind test, so that all volunteers could benefit from the most effective formula, the cabotegravir injection.

Reduce the number of infections

Currently, there is not yet treatment to cure AIDS. If the possibilities of a vaccine are still under study, research for the development of other means of protection against the virus is also in full swing. In 2018, 1.7 million people worldwide have been newly infected with HIV. In France, it’s 6,200 people who discovered their HIV status that same year. These new advances therefore give hope of reducing these figures in the years to come.

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