No more daily pills: Guyana could soon offer injectable HIV PrEP

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP for short, is a medicine used to reduce the risk of getting the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Though available in other forms, local health authorities offer PrEP as pills that should be taken daily.

Guyana’s Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, at the weekend, reminded people that efforts are being made to provide these oral pills all across the country to help persons at risk to get the protection they need.

However, he said that efforts are being made to get an injectable form of PrEP that would last longer.

“We would also be able to change what PrEP looks like in the future because people taking pills and, in some cases, having to take them every day to prevent an infection, is not something they will ideally do.

“We know, and we have seen, the effective results coming out of injectable PrEP,” Dr. Anthony said.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, injectable HIV PrEP is an antiretroviral drug given as an intramuscular injection every two months to prevent HIV.

As Guyana and countries around the world focus on targets to increase HIV testing and people accessing medication, Dr. Anthony opined that injectable PrEP seems to increase adherence.

“We currently do not have that but in the near future, this is the direction in which we wanna we wanna go,” the Health Minister said.

HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) occurs at the most advanced stage of infection.

“HIV targets the body’s white blood cells, weakening the immune system. This makes it easier to get sick with diseases like tuberculosis, infections and some cancers,” the World Health Organization says.