The latest research published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in March revealed that most women living with HIV that were surveyed preferred long-acting injectable (LAI) adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) over daily medicines. LAI ART has finished phase 3 trials and is currently expecting FDA permission.
Adherence to ART by sufferers with HIV is important to allow for the efficient suppression of the virus and a loss of HIV transmission. Still, many sufferers have stated that sustaining long-term adherence can be challenging. For this reason, LAI ART has the potential to change HIV therapy and prevention for sufferers.
Yet, there has been little study carried on LAI ART-related behaviors in female sufferers, particularly outside of clinical cases.
The Latest Research
Due to this lack of information regarding women’s involvement with LAI ART, the researchers in this latest HIV research examined women’s interest in LAI HIV treatment, making it the first study to do so. The HIV research is also one of the first to be a non-clinical trial sample, that means it consists of sufferers who more correctly represent the people that will be using LAI ART.
The researchers conducted discussions with 59 women living with HIV who were not involved in LAI ART clinical cases, but who take care at university settings that will determine LAI ART once the FDA allows it.
The interviews were administered in 6 Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) sites: New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Chapel Hill, and San Francisco. The researchers attended the discussions over 11 months, from November 2017 to October 2018.
HIV Treatment
The results of the research revealed that more than half of the 59 women interviewed (56%) would choose LAI ACT over daily pills for purposes of comfort, privacy, and observed efficacy. Of those who reported that they would not favor LAI ACT, 34% would prefer daily oral tablets, and 10% would prefer neither.
In the United States, about one-quarter of people living with HIV are women. Among this group, 89% know their analysis, 65% receive care, and 51% are virally overcome. In early HIV treatment study, women living with HIV have historically been underrepresented, including in prior trials investigating LAI ACT as a therapy.
In the earlier sent ATLAS and FLAIR LAI ART trials, the members were mostly male, and they reached a high preference (97% in FLAIR, 91% in ATLAS) for LAI ACT over daily oral tablets. These members also stated that the adverse consequences, which include fatigue, fever, headache, and nausea, rarely led them to attempt trial discontinuation.
Antiretroviral Treatment
Although the majority of women in the most recent study also preferred LAI ACT over daily pills, they showed the presence of important tests that participants in the earlier studies did not.
These tests included the enhanced frequency of doctor’s’ visits (every month for LAI ACT versus every 3 or 4 months with the daily pill) and related transportation barriers, distrust of new and perceived untested medicine, and failure that LAI would only relieve some of the burdens of the daily pill, according to the investigators.
“Our knowledge noted that women living with HIV are open to long-acting injectable antiretroviral treatment, and many believe it will provide distinct benefits over daily pills,” Philbin said in a press statement. “
