A study presented at last month’s HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) conference in Chicago shows that in a minority of people who were given the experimental injectable drug cabotegravir as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the drug was still measurable in their body a full year after their last injection.

The personal values and moral judgments of healthcare providers are likely to interfere with the appropriate provision of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), Sarah Calabrese of Yale University reported at the HIV Research for Prevention conference (HIVR4P 2016) in Chicago last week. This was one of several presentations which highlighted inequalities in access to PrEP in the U.S. In a plenary talk, Noël Gordon of the Human Rights Campaign reminded delegates that white people make up 27% of new HIV diagnoses but 74% of PrEP users. There are also inequalities in terms of age and gender.

A PrEP user in New York City has become HIV-positive with virus that is resistant to Truvada and other antiretroviral drugs, according to a report presented Tuesday at the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P 2016) conference in Chicago. This is only the second such case that has been reported, highlighting the rarity -- but not the impossibility -- of HIV infections among people who adhere to their pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication schedule.

HIV suppression on antiretroviral therapy (ART) would need to increase substantially among men who have sex with men in order to take advantage of "treatment as prevention" to reduce the rate of new HIV infections, according to a mathematical modeling study presented at the HIV Research for Prevention conference (HIVR4P 2016) taking place this week in Chicago.

An increasing number of gay men and others at risk for HIV are seeking to protect their health with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), but the lack of PrEP provision and regulatory approval in many countries is leading people to take it without medical supervision and on an ad-hoc basis. This will undermine the safety and effectiveness of PrEP, said Jerome Galea as he presented results of the PrEP in the Wild survey at the HIV Research for Prevention conference (HIVR4P 2016) this week in Chicago.

A study presented at the HIV Research for Prevention conference this week in Chicago suggests that among women at high risk for HIV infection, 40% or more infections might be transmitted via anal intercourse. Because HIV is transmitted, according to different estimates, from 2 to 18 times more easily via anal than vaginal sex (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's estimate is 12 times), anal intercourse could be a major -- or even predominant -- contributor to HIV infections in heterosexual women, even if anal sex accounts for only 5%-10% of all sex.