| Abstract: | At a recent meeting, AIDS experts questioned why postexposure prophylaxis that protects health care workers against blood exposure to HIV would not protect someone who has been exposed to HIV through sexual contact. There is no scientific evidence that antiretroviral drugs can prevent sexual transmission. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points out that the dynamics of transmission via blood exposure versus sexual exposure differ in ways not fully known. The CDC acknowledges that the triple combination of drugs recommended for exposed health care workers has the potential to act as a morning-after pill, and have asked for additional funding to study the role of protease inhibitors in this type of prevention and intervention of HIV. Two groups that would directly benefit from the back-up protection are discordant couples and women who have been sexually assaulted and cannot determine the HIV status of their assailant. |
