A study by the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) is to help decide whether health workers choose to administer the antiretroviral drug, Truvada-as a prevention or treatment for HIV/AIDS.
Some 600 sero-discordant couples (where one partner is positive and the other is not) will take part in the study at three sites in Nnewi, Jos and Calabar, the research team announced yesterday in Abuja.
Previous studies have shown antiretrovirals help reduce the rate of infection in a population in two different ways-pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP), in which people at risk of infection take the pill to avoid an infection and Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP), in which people already infected with HIV-1 take medicines.
NACA Director General, Professor John Idoko said the study is being carried out in Nigeria to see whether it will work in real-life situations among the Nigerian population under normal conditions.
“It has been found to work. The whole idea is that if it works so well in this situation, it can become policy,” he said.
Deputy Director of research, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Dr Oliver Ezechi, who will act as internal assessor of the study said they are not reinventing the wheel, but trying to see the best strategy to scale it up in Nigeria.
Results from the study will be monitored directly at NACA and external assessors in Geneva and reported to its funding sponsors, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Daily Trust
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