• An affordable, globally available drug — low-dose aspirin — could help prevent HIV transmission.

Study:

• Researchers tested the effect of aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs on HIV target cells in a group of Kenyan women who were at low risk for HIV.
• Transmission of the virus requires a susceptible target cell in the human host. Activated immune cells are more susceptible to HIV infection than resting cells. It is known that inflammation brings activated HIV target cells to the female genital tract.
• The researchers found that Aspirin was the most effective anti-inflammatory drug. It reduced the number of HIV target cells in the female genital tract by 35 per cent.

Impacts:

• This could be a strategy for HIV prevention that is not only inexpensive, but easily accessed globally.
• This could be a affordable and immediately available prevention approach.
• This helps in providing a new tool in the HIV prevention arsenal that would be used together with other approaches to reduce HIV transmission in high-risk populations.