Critics Worry HIV Prevention Pill Will Promote Risky Behavior - East Idaho News

Critics Worry HIV Prevention Pill Will Promote Risky Behavior

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GETTY H 120211 HIVAIDSAwareness2?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336559328842Bananastock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — AIDS advocates say a pill proven to protect against the HIV virus could promote unsafe sex by creating a false sense of security.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet Thursday to discuss whether Truvada, a drug already approved to manage HIV, should be approved to prevent the infection in high-risk patients, including men who have sex with other men, and heterosexuals with HIV-positive partners.  But advocacy groups argue the drug would encourage risky behavior and undo decades of safe-sex advocacy.

“I think it will be a catastrophe for HIV prevention in this country,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest provider of AIDS and HIV care in the U.S.  “Men don’t need more excuses to not use condoms.”

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Nearly half are men who have sex with men.

When taken daily, Truvada has been shown to cut the risk of HIV by up to 44 percent in gay and bisexual men in conjunction with condom use and counseling, and up to 75 percent in heterosexuals with HIV-positive partners.

“Why would a person use a condom if they’re taking this serious, heavy duty medication?” said Weinstein.  “When used properly, condoms are 95 percent effective at preventing infection.  We don’t want to reduce condom use.”

Weinstein described the pill approach to HIV prevention as “the typical American easy way out” of a public health problem worthy of a bigger effort aimed at changing the culture of sex.

“We’ve done a really poor job in this country of promoting safer sex,” he said, describing the “failure” of sex education in schools.  “It’s not that safe sex has failed, it’s that it’s barely been tried in this country.”

But Dr. Barry Zingman, medical director of the AIDS Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, said Truvada would give high-risk patients one more layer of protection.

“It’s not a panacea by any means, but there is still a tremendous fear of becoming HIV-positive, even when couples are using all the proper protection,” he said.  “When used in carefully selected patients getting significant support and close follow-up, it can clearly make a difference in people’s lives.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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