Pre-exposure HIV prophylaxis (PrEP) background and controversies

According to World Health Organization data (December 2008), 33.4 million of people are HIV infected all over the world. AIDS was the reason of 2.0 million deaths in 2008. Deaths of children under 15 years old accounted for 280000. There were over 7000 new daily HIV infections. Apart of present HIV prophylaxis programs, such as condome use, prescribing of sterile injection equipment and post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), 2.7 million newly infected were encountered in 2008 (1). Till now, no effective HIV vaccine was developed and knowledge concerning modern vaccine prevention is being challenged (2). All those facts underline need of more effective strategies to reduce incidental infections. Pre exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a new HIV prophylaxis program. This method could be used by HIV-negative people in advance of hazardous contacts. Many studies among animals showed better results of this prophylaxis method than those given after HIV exposure (3). It is discussed, that it could be a promising strategy to reduce new infections and further deaths related to HIV/AIDS (4). This commentary is to provide background on PrEP and controversies about its use.