Update
from PARTNER:
Portugal has
opened and now all 14 countries are active and recruiting and as
of June
2012 692 couples have been enrolled.
The new Guidelines from WHO
WHO has published the new guidelines
on:
“Couples HIV testing and counselling – including
antiretroviral therapy for treatment and prevention in serodiscordant
couples”.
WHO states:
"These guidelines recommend offering ART for the HIV-positive member of
a couple to help prevent HIV transmission to an HIV-negative partner,
both when the index partner qualifies for ART to protect his or her own
health according to WHO 2010 ART guideline recommendations and when he
or she does not. The latter option, initiating lifelong medication when
it is not yet needed for one’s own health, raises complex
issues
for both individuals and programmes. Individuals and couples will
benefit from counselling that helps them consider all aspects of their
decision, including the use of other prevention interventions such as
the consistent and correct use of male and female condoms."
Comments
from Prof. Andrew Phillips member of the Partner study EC:
"Now we have WHO
guidelines
that specifically recommend using ART to prevent transmission in
couples so it
is more important than ever that we collect data that tells us what
is the
absolute risk of HIV transmission from a positive person on virally
suppressive
ART, both through vaginal sex and through anal sex when a condom is not
used. No existing studies tell us this as they involve concurrent
significant levels of condom use."
Laurent Rossignol - PARTNER Community Lead for France.
"As some
gay serodiscordant couples have already adopted the antiretroviral
treatment as their unique way of HIV prevention within their couple, we
now need to determine accurately to what extent the gays are
concerned by the
Swiss statement and the conclusions of HPTN052. Because of the
difficulty to obtain statistically significant results about the
efficacy of the TASP (treament as prevention) in anal sex, a doubt is
still persisting and
creating some tensions and fears in these couples. The PARTNER study is
an opportunity to remove this doubt."
With the publication of the
results of the HPTN 052 trial there is now very strong evidence that
virally suppressive ART reduces infectiousness of people with HIV
through heterosexual sex. However, there are insufficient data for
transmission rates on ART in the absence of condom use
in heterosexuals and no data for rates of transmission through
anal sex in MSM. The PARTNER study will provide missing information in
several key areas. Firstly, to more precisely estimate the absolute
risk of HIV transmission using ART alone in sero-different couples
having condom-less vaginal sex with suppressed VL on ART and secondly
to provide
data on rates of transmission for anal sex in serodifferent couples
(including MSM) which are likely to be different to vaginal sex.
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IAS
conference in Washington 2012:
The
next PARTNER investigator
meeting will be held in
Washington 2012 in conjunction with the IAS
conference Monday 23rd July 2012 from 7-8 am.
Details and the agenda will be sent out prior to the meeting
Investigator
meeting in Seattle CROI 2012:
Link
to the minutes
of the PARTNER investigator meeting in
CROI 2012.
Link to the presentation
form the CROI meeting.
Link
to the PARTNER study abstract presented at CROI. with the latest
result.
PARTNER have
now published the details of the Methods of the PARTNER study.
Link to the article
To sign up for the Newsletter and for more information please
contact:
Email:
tbr@cphiv.dk
Study
coordinator:
Tina Bruun, RN MSA
Project coordinator
Copenhagen HIV Programme
University of Copenhagen
The Panum Institute/Building 21.1
Blegdamsvej 3B
2200 Copenhagen N
Denmark
Phone: +45 35 45 57 93
Fax: +45 35 45 57 58
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