PrEP Ring: NHVMAS advocates New HIV/AIDS Prevention tools

PrEP Ring: NHVMAS advocates New HIV/AIDS Prevention tools in Nigeria

The New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS) Nigeria, has advocated for women at substantial risk of HIV in Nigeria to use Dapivirine Vagina
Ring (PrEP Ring) which can reduce HIV incidence among women when used with high adherence.

NHVMAS revealed this at a webinar training series for Female journalists organised by The New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), Nigeria

In her presentation at the virtual event, Executive Director of NHVMAS, Mrs Florita Durueke, said the Dapivirine Vagina Ring is a flexible vagina ring made of silicone that slowly releases an antiretroviral (ARV) drug called Dapivirine over the course of one month to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

Durueke noted that the Dapivirine Vagina Ring
reduce HIV risk in clinical trials and it’s easy to use. The ring delivers dapivirine locally in the vagina where infection could occur, and little of the drug is absorbed elsewhere in the body.

According to her, the ring reduced the risk of HIV-1 infection by 35% in the Ring study and 27% in the ASPIRE study. In addition, recent open-label studies showed greater adherence to the ring and modeling data suggest that HIV risk is reduced by about 50%.
Increased use of the risk was associated with greater HIV risk reduction.
She noted there is need for regulatory approval of the PrEP ring and roll out in Nigeria.

She added that the ring can be inserted by women without help from a health care provider, a health care provider may insert the first ring, if wanted, just to demonstrate it, for the
woman to be familiar with how to insert the ring herself in future.

In the reports majority of women in clinical trials reported that the ring didn’t interfere with their daily activities

While speaking on the side effects of the ring Durueke said, some women in clinical trials experienced mild to
moderate urinary tract issues, vagina discharge or itching, but these usually
went away within a week or two.

“The ring can be used with most family planning methods. An ongoing open-label study among pregnant women is
collecting additional safety data about ring use during pregnancy. An additional study is planned to assess the safety of ring use while breastfeeding.

The ring is developed by the International Partnership for Microbicides
(IPM) and is recommended for cisgender women aged 18 and older at
substantial risk of HIV and who are unwilling or unable to use oral
PrEP is recommended by the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO).

National HIV prevalence is 1.4% among adults aged 15–49 years. Women aged 15–49 years are more than twice as likely to be living with HIV than men (1.9% versus 0.9%.). HIV prevalence was the highest among females aged 35-39 years at 3.3%, and highest among males aged 50-54 years at 2.3%.

The difference in HIV prevalence between women and men is greatest
among younger adults, with young women aged 20–24 years
almost 4 times as likely to be living with HIV as young men in the same
age group. ((1.3% verses 0.4%)