abstract:Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is any medical or public health procedure used before exposure to the disease causing agent, its purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure a disease. An example would be if a doctor gave a medication used to treat a disease to a healthy person who is not thought to have that disease, but is at risk for contracting it.
Thisstrategy, known aspre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, isbasedontheconceptthatblockingHIV'sreplicationimmediatelyafterexposure to the virusmaypreventinfection.
The first is the idea of pre-exposure prophylaxis in other words, giving ARVs to uninfected people to clobber any new infection before it can get going.
In another trial called PrEP -- pre-exposure prophylaxis -- the CDC is also studying whether antiretroviral pills are safe and effective in preventing HIV infection.