Question
With PrEP drugs in my HIV combination protect me from reinfection?
24 December 2017. Related: All topics, HIV reinfection (superinfection), HIV transmission.
I am HIV positive and undetectable.
Am I still able to get reinfected if having unprotected sex? As Truvada protects against infection in HIV negative people, would it also protect me from getting a resistant strain of HIV if Truvada was part of my ART?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Answer
Hi
Good question… and the answer is probably yes.
I say probably because there are so few studies about reinfection.
However, there have been a few case reports of reinfection in someone on treatment with HIV that was resistant to the drugs in the HIV combination. This is likely to be very rare, but a couple of cases of PrEP not working have been because of drug-resistant HIV.
In practice though, if your quality of life is better from not having to always use condoms, this high effectiveness of PrEP should also protect agains reinfection. Taking daily meds means this protection is likely to reduce any risk by more than 99.99% etc.
Hi Tom,
There are two drugs in PrEP. They are called antiretrovirals (ARVs). And these ARVs are used with other ARVs to treat HIV.
PrEP cannot be used on it’s own to treat HIV. It has to be used in combination with more ARVs to do this.
Is prep the same as the medication given to treat hiv sufferers ?