November 01, 2012
LAWT Wire Service
The OASIS Clinic at the Los Angeles County –Martin Luther King Multi-Ambulatory Care Clinics will participate in a statewide program to study the effectiveness of PreP in HIV. PreP refers to pre-exposure prophylaxis. The best example of this is malaria.
When traveling to malaria-infested countries it is advisable to take anti-malaria medication, for example. Now, for the first time medical experts are able to consider prophylaxis in terms of HIV. It is not complete and there will be other studies.
The study at OASIS will be only for MSM’s (men who have sex with men) and male to female transgenders. This study will exclude women because the medication being studied gets higher concentration in the lower GI tract but not in the vaginal canal.
There are five different studies in Los Angeles County:
1) The CDC funded PATH CHRP through the State of California. There will be sites in Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles. The San Diego county program will also have satellites at Harbor-UCLA and USC. The Los Angeles county program will have sites at OASIS Clinic and the Gay and Lesbian Center
2) The HTPN 069 is a safety study for the drug maravaroc. It will be studied in MSM’s, male to female transgender, and there is an arm for women
3) The HPTN 073 is a PreP study for Black MSM’s Transgenders at UCLA
Anyone seeking more information about Prep can call OASIS at 310 668 5033. All of these will begin in early 2013.
It is important to know that everyone will not qualify for PreP and that there is also a post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) program. OASIS is one of two sites funded by the county to provide medication for persons who feel they have been exposed to someone who might have HIV.