PARTNER Newsletter

Issue 9, June 2011 

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Important consequences from HPTN 052: Initiation of Antiretroviral Treatment Protects Uninfected Sexual Partners from HIV Infection
 
As many of you are aware, the HPTN 052 trial provides important information for healthcare professionals and for patients. 

The trial clearly indicates that risk of transmission between serodifferent heterosexuals is very low when the seropositive patient is on ART. However we do not yet know how many couples used condoms consistently so we do not yet know from the trial (or from other studies) exactly what is the estimated transmission rate during unprotected sex (which is what we are studying in PARTNER). 

It seems likely that based on the results of 052 more couples will have sex without condoms. In the light of this situation, we urgently need more propspective observational data that will help to know exactly how low is the transmission risk under fully suppressive cART. In particular, we need data for gay men:  we know transmission risks are different for anal sex.

All these consideration make the PARTNER study an even more important study.  
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A comment from  Myron S. Cohen, HPTN 052 Principal Investigator: 

"HPTN-052 is a randomized trial to investigate the effect of immediate ART (CD4 350-550) on prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV. We enrolled 1776 discordant couples (one partner has HIV randomized to immediate treatment compared to a delay in treatment till CD4 count falls to 250 cells.  97% of the couples were heterosexual in nine countries, with more than half in Southern Africa. We did not study appreciable numbers of MSM so there remains uncertainty over transmission risk for MSM on ART."

On April 28, 2011, the DSMB asked us to make the results to date public, which we did on May 12, 2011. Briefly, only 1virally linked transmission event was observed in couples where the HIV infected person was taking ART, compared to 27 transmission events when the HIV infected person was not on therapy.  This translated to a 96.3% prevention of HIV transmission ascribed to ART. The study is ongoing but we are offering all HIV infected subjects ART regardless of CD4 count.  We plan to present these results in detail this summer."
SAVE THE DATE: Investigator Meeting Rome
The next PARTNER investigator meeting will be held in conjunction with IAS Rome. The meeting will be held at Grand Hotel Ritz on Monday 18th July during the lunch break from 13-14. Details and an agenda will be sent in advance of the meeting. 

Investigator TCs 
Minutes available here 

National Coordinator TCs
Minutes available here 

HPTN 052 Study
For more information about the HPTN 052 study, please visit their website.




The PARTNER study has been funded by the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research in the UK) and is sponsored by UCL (University College London). Additionally funding for participation of the Swiss centres has been provided by the Swiss Office of Public Health. The study is coordinated cooperatively between Copenhagen HIV Programme (CHIP), UCL and Royal Free NHS.