Experts say the twice-yearly shot is “amazing” as it offers 100% protection against HIV.

South Africa, Cape Town – Treatment involves injections given twice a year. AIDS The results of the study published Wednesday showed it was 100% effective in preventing new infections in women.

A study of almost 5,000 people found no infections among young women and girls who received the vaccine. In South Africa The researchers reported that about 2% of people in Uganda who were given daily preventive drugs contracted HIV from an infected sexual partner.

“This level of protection is surprising,” said Salim Abdul Karim of the shot, director of the AIDS Research Centre in Durban, South Africa, who was not involved in the study.

Shots taken American pharmaceutical company Gilead The drug, sold as Sanrenca, is approved in the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere but only as an HIV treatment. The company said it was waiting for the results of trials in men before seeking permission to use it to prevent infection.

The women's results were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at the Munich AIDS conference. Gilead funded the study, and some of the researchers were employees of the company. The results were so surprisingly promising that the study was stopped early and all participants were given an injection of the drug, also known as lenacapavir.

on the other hand Other ways to prevent HIV infectionAs with condoms and the daily pill, consistent use is a problem in Africa: A new study found that only about 30% of people given Gilead's preventive drugs Truvada or Descovy actually took them, and that number decreased over time.

The prospect of twice-yearly injections is “really revolutionary news” for patients, said Thandeka Nkosi, who helped manage Gilead's study at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in Masiphumelele, South Africa. “It gives participants choice and completely removes the stigma of taking medicines for HIV prevention.”

The experts Stopping the Spread of AIDS “We're excited about the Sanrenca vaccine, but we're concerned that Gilead has not yet agreed to a price that's affordable for those who need it most. The company has said it will pursue a “voluntary licensing program,” suggesting that only a limited number of generic drug makers would be allowed to produce Sanrenca.”

“Gilead has the tools that could change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic.” Winnie the PoohExecutive Director of the United Nations AIDS Agency, headquartered in Geneva.

She said her organization had asked Gilead for the generic drug maker to share Sanrenca's patent with the U.N.-backed program. Providing affordable medicines to poor countries around the world. The drug, which treats HIV, costs more than $40,000 a year in the United States, but the amount paid by individuals varies.

Dr. Helen Bygrave of Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that if the shot “is made available to countries with the highest rates of new infections, it can reverse the epidemic,” and called on Gilead to make Sanlenca affordable for all countries.

Gilead said in a statement last month that it was too early to say how much Sanrenca would cost to treat in poor countries. Dr. Jared Baeten, Gilead's senior vice president of clinical development, said the company is already in talks with generic drug makers and understands “how important it is to move quickly.”

Another HIV shot, Apletude, given every two months, has been approved for use in several countries, including in Africa. The shot sells for about $180 per patient per year, still too expensive for most developing countries.

Byanyima said those most in need of long-term protection include women and girls who are victims of domestic violence and gay men in countries where same-sex relationships are criminalized. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), women and girls will account for 46% of new HIV infections globally in 2022 and are three times more likely to be infected with HIV than men in Africa.

Byanyima likened the news about Sanlenca to the discovery decades ago of an AIDS drug that could transform HIV infection from a death sentence to a chronic disease. At the time, South African President Nelson Mandela suspended the drug's patent to make it more widely available, and the price has since fallen from about $10,000 to about $50 per patient per year.

Olwetu Kemere, a health worker at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, predicts the vaccination could increase the number of people coming in for HIV prevention, slowing the spread of the virus. She said young women often hide the pills to avoid questions from boyfriends and families. “It's hard for girls to stick with it,” she said.

In a report on the status of the global pandemic released this week, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the number of HIV infections in 2023 will be the lowest since the late 1980s. Globally, HIV infects around 1.3 million people each year and kills more than 600,000 people, mostly in Africa. While great progress has been made in Africa, HIV infections are on the rise in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

In a separate study presented at the AIDS conference, Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool and his colleagues estimated that if production of Sanrenca was scaled up to treat 10 million people, the price should fall to about $40 per treatment. He said it was important to make Sanrenca available to health authorities as soon as possible.

“This is the closest thing we have to an HIV vaccine,” he said.

___

Chen reported from London.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.