Check out how Aspirin could help prevent HIV:
Scientists have revealed that an affordable and globally available drug low dose aspirin could help prevent HIV transmission. HIV infection rates remain inadequately high, especially among young African women. According to researchers the tested effect of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA or aspirin) and other anti-inflammatory drugs on HIV target cells in a group of women who were at low risk for HIV.
The pilot study which was published in the Journal of the International AIDS society also states that 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.
In the study, it was found that Aspirin was very much effective as it reduced the number of HIV target cells in the female genital tract by 35%.
As per the researchers, this could not only be an inexpensive HIV prevention but also globally easily accessed one. People living in poverty are disproportionately at risk of getting HIV and there is a need for prevention approaches that are cheap and easily available.
The goal of the study was to provide a new tool in the HIV prevention arsenal that could be used together with other approaches to reduce HIV transmission in high-risk populations. It is also said that aspirin does not carry the stigma associated with other anti-HIV drugs, which means it is more likely to be used daily.
