A man taking the preventive HIV treatment pre-exposure prophylaxis regimen Truvada has contracted drug-resistant HIV, marking the second documented occurrence of such a case.
According to The Bay Area Reporter, the man was taking Truvada as directed and protective levels of the treatment were detectable in his hair and dried blood samples. The investigators discovered the HIV strain had developed resistance to multiple antiretroviral treatments. While the man's partner was HIV positive, his strain of HIV was not resistant to antiretrovirals, leaving clinicians to suspect the man contracted the virus while engaging in group sex with his partner, according to the Bay Area Reporter.
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"Fortunately these resistant viruses are rare," said Howard Grossman, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic in West Palm Beach, Florida, who described the case at the HIVR4P conference in Chicago on October 18.
According to the CDC, daily PrEP use can lower the risk of HIV infection via sexual transmission by more than 90 percent and can cut infection risk by intravenous drug use by more than 70 percent.
In February, a 43-year-old Canadian man taking PrEP for 24 months became infected with drug-resistant HIV.
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