Truvada Resistant Strain - PrEP failure?

[NYBBGUY58]

My doctor tested my virus for sensitivity to try to get better clinical results, and my virus is resistant to Truvada.  Sigh.  I figured this would happen eventually...

[6811283]

What @Usccocksucker said. His post was a little technical, but in brief: there isn't some wave of Truvada-resistant HIV out there that's getting passed around from one person to another.

For one thing, Truvada resistance is very rare and likely to remain so. There are two drugs in Truvada which "backstop" each other, and it's very hard for a mutation to "get around" them both -- most often they end up being very weak due to the mutations and unlikely to spread.

For another, "resistant strains" are specific to the individual, based on what meds he/she might be taking that are inadequate to control the infection. These mutations do not necessarily get passed on in the same form to that person's partners, even if HIV is transmitted. As mentioned, in the absence of meds, the virus often reverts to "wild type" (i.e., garden variety HIV), which is extremely unlikely to defeat Prep.

It might seem like we're hearing more frequent cases of Prep failure (something like four to date, worldwide?). But it's not because the failure rare is increasing -- it's because so many more people are taking Prep. The success rate is still overwhelmingly good, particularly compared to condoms.

 

 

[6811283]

On 3/25/2018 at 6:55 PM, topdognyc said:

Read this article.

 

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/03/seattle-man-contracted-hiv-despite-taking-prep-consistently/#.Wreieos5T1s.facebook

There's no evidence that the Seattle case was a true case of Prep failure, as opposed to a case of poor meds adherence. The former remains incredibly rare -- the latter, unfortunately, not.

They shouldn't have made a big public announcement and caused alarm without verifying that first.

See:

https://www.aidsmap.com/page/3245143/