“In
terms of trying to strengthen the HIV programme to reduce the impact of the
epidemic, we are looking at all the recommendations that have been given by the
World Health Organization (WHO), and PrEP is one of those. We are trying to get
a feel of what the public thinks about PrEP, and also to do our internal
piloting in various spaces, and based on the outcome of that, we would say to
the Ministry of Health's wider directorate that we recommend that this be
implemented in this way”
Director of the HIV and
STI unit at the Ministry of Health, Dr Nicole Skyers, commenting on the PrEP
(Pre-exposure prophylaxis) pill.
Jamaica
is fighting a silent and growing battle against the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency
Virus) due to low condom use. So can a pill help?
That
is the assertion of Ministry of Health, which is currently mulling the idea of
a PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis) pill as explained in the article “'Magic
Pill' For Ja? - Gov't Looking To Introduce Preventive Drug To Reduce The Spread
Of HIV”, published Sunday October 15, 2017 by Ryon Jones, The Jamaica Gleaner.
This is on the heels of the current controversy over the human papillomavirus (HPV), which I personally suspect is an experiment as opine in my blog article entitled “Why the Ministry of Health must vaccinate Jamaican Boys and Girls against the Human papilloma virus”.
Like
that vaccine, the PrEP pill would protect HIV-negative individuals (low-risk
people who do not they have HIV Virus active in their bodies) from contraction
of the virus and eventually developing AIDS (Aquired Immuno Deficiency
Syndrome). This may be a silver bullet that prevents the further spread of HIV
given the stark stats in the 2014 Global AIDS Response Report:
1. 30,313
Jamaicans were living with HIV
2. 25%
unaware that they were infected
Already
the Ministry of Health is conducting a quarterly HIV/AIDS/STD National
Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Practice Survey in all parishes asking
Jamaicans if they had previously heard about the PrEP medication and would they
be willing to take the pill daily. WHO is banking on the results of 4 randomized
control trials, which show the drug works best when used as directed.
But is the PrEP pill a good idea? Or is this another experiment by the WHO (World Health Organization) using Jamaica as a proxy for a Drug Trial?
Ministry of Health, the
WHO and PrEP – How to use Jamaicans to do Drug Testing
It's
a well known fact that condom use in Jamaica is low.
So
low in fact that legalizing prostitution may have to be considered in order to
treat prostitutes, who are most at risk from such sexual encounters as noted in
my MICO Wars blog article
entitled “Why
Jamaica must legalize Prostitution as Ministry of Health dealing with silent
HIV-AIDS and STD’s Outbreak”.
Hence the reason for the PrEP pill as argued by Director of the HIV and STI unit at the Ministry of Health., Dr Nicole Skyers, quote: “Everybody knows that condom use is way below what it ought to be within our context, so you have to look to say do we do it (PrEP) with everybody or do we do it with our populations that are high at risk of HIV infection. So if you are a low-risk person, maybe PrEP is not necessarily for you”.
Still
a PrEP pill, which is aimed at such high-risk persons in Jamaica, comes with
some side effects:
1. Worsening
of hepatitis B infection
2. Too
much lactic acid in blood
3. Kidney
problems
4. Severe
liver problems
5. Bone
problems
This
means that the PrEP pill cannot be taken by infants, children, older persons
and anyone with medical complications that has resulted in them having a
weakened immune system. Persons taking the PrEP daily will reduce their risk of
contracting HIV by 90%.
Still, regular check-ups are still required if you are using the PrEP pill as pointed out by Dr Nicole Skyers, quote: “Persons on PrEP need to be tested every three months for HIV and STIs, and they need to have their liver and kidney functions tested”.
If
the survey comes back indicating that Jamaicans are interested, then with the
support of donor funding, the HIV/STI/TB Unit will recruit a consultant to
conduct a PrEP pilot in 2018.
After
all, the guinea pig trials need to be done under the watchful gaze of the WHO,
to quote Dr Nicole Skyers: “So it's not just to say we're implementing PrEP;
here is your pill. It's not that simple. We have to do a pilot to see what the
best avenue is for it within our context. The WHO has two arms - where you stay
on the pill every day and there is also the option of using it around exposure
to that risky sexual act - so we have to determine what the best fit for our
population is if we decide to go down that road”.
If
this is not an experiment, I don't know what is. Still, action needs to be
taken, as the silent HIV epidemic will kill many in Jamaica unless we take
control of our sexual activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment