Is the ARV Injection Available In South Africa?
HIV since its arrival has plagued many South Africans and taken many lives. Great strides have however been made in the medical hemisphere to control and prevent the contraction of HIV.
Preventive Measures
As part of the preventive measures, one of the highly anticipated means of control has been the Antiretroviral (ARV) injection, which is designed with the hopes of preventing women from contracting the HIV infection. The implications of this is that aside the use of other HIV control measures such as the condom or even the pill, women who for whatever reason find it difficult to use any of these methods can opt for taking an injection every two months to prevent HIV infection.
Research Into ARV Injections
This research into the ARV is being spearheaded by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and is focused on the sample space of sexually active men and women in nations such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Botswana, Malawi and Kenya. The trial is set to focus on approximately 3200 female within the age range of eighteen years to forty five years. The name of this study is coded HPTN084?HPTN084 studies are set to be carried out in seven different locations in South Africa. One of them is the Desmond Tutu HIV Center which is directed by Professor Linda Bekker of the University of Cape Town in Cape Town.
Is ARV User Friendly?
The ARV is a more user friendly option for people that find it exacting or stigmatizing to take a pill on a daily bases without missing any dosage administration. In this situation, this new form of prevention will serve as a highly convenient method of prevention to millions of people and will bring a lot of relief to those under the plague of the pill.
What Is The Substance In ARV?
The substance in the injection is known as cabotegravir or cabotegravir long acting (CAB LA) and forms part of a special class of ARV’s called integrase inhibitors. This class of drugs includes doublegravir which is the drug that is used as the first line of combating HIV.These integrase inhibitors function as drugs that help the patient to have a low risk of developing resistant mutations. Catbotegravir in particular is noted to potentially be reformable as a depot agent and as such it was possible to make it an injectable drug.When utilized as prevention, it can be outlined that the injection only contains CAB LA. There is, however, also in development dual injectables -CAB LA with the ARV Rilpivirine that can be used as treatment for HIV
