Morning Briefing

"Investigators gave more details about the positive results of the Partners PrEP Study Tuesday at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports. "The study of 4,700 HIV discordant couples (where one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not) looked at the potential of two different antiretrovirals for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV-1 prevention versus a placebo among heterosexual men and women in rural and urban Kenya and Uganda," the blog notes. So far, results show 75 percent protection in the arm using two antiretrovirals and 67 percent protection in the one-antiretroviral arm, when compared with the placebo, the blog notes, adding that the "drug arms of the study are ongoing and will wrap up at the end of this year" (Mazzotta, 3/6).