Does PrEP help with fighting Covid19?

[LTH]

My heart sank when I learned this evening that it looked like the World is entering the pandemic phase of Covid19. With mass quarantines are going in on in Vietnam, South Korea & now Italy with Italy not even able to identify their superspreader(s). Quarantining is becoming more and more pointless now.

 

From what I found, it looked like the SARS-CoV-2 virus is very similar to the HIV virus with them both being RNA viruses. Isn't PrEP help preventing RNA viruses from replicating?

 

Even though to my health plan I'm on Truvada full time but I'm actually not. With my hiring pattern being very predictable, I usually get on Truvada 2 weeks before hiring and continue 1 week after. Then I stop and then start the whole cycle again for the next hire.

 

If Truvada also helps with Covid19, I'm willing to risk bone and kidney damage to go on Truvada full time until this thing blows over. Any doctor in the house would like to chime in?

[+ keroscenefire]

I'm not medical expert but I don't think your logic follows. HIV and COVID are not closely related. They belong to completely different virus orders. Basically as big of a difference between us and our fellow primates and an armadillo or a dolphin or any other mammal (probably even more so since viruses are so different than other organisms that many scientists aren't even sure if they should be classified as an organism).

 

In addition, HIV belongs to a group of retroviruses that work by copying its RNA genome into the DNA of the host cells it is infecting, so that the host treats those cells as its own. This is in part why HIV is so hard to cure....the virus has literally become a part of the host's own cells. Truvada works by interrupting the ability of HIV to reverse transcribe its RNA into the DNA of the host cell when it is trying to infect it. Coronavirus doesn't infect cells in that way so Truvada would have no real effect on its ability to infect cells.

 

RNA viruses are quite common and most of the major infectious viruses in humans are RNA virus: Influenza, HIV, the common cold, Ebola, Coronavirus, Rabies, etc. I can assure you that in the 3 years I've been on Truvada I have gotten the flu once and the common cold probably a dozen times. Since coronavirus actually is one of the viruses that can cause the common cold, I probably have even been infected by one since taking Truvada. It offers absolutely no protection from them.

Edited February 24, 2020 by keroscenefire

[+ ArVaGuy]

I had read over the weekend that China was redirecting drugs from HIV patients to fight Covid-19. Wasn’t sure if it was fake news or not. This link, among several others, indicates that HIV drugs are being used in treatment.

 

 

 

https://www.realhealthmag.com/article/china-uses-hiv-meds-treat-new-coronavirus

[TruthBTold]

My heart sank when I learned this evening that it looked like the World is entering the pandemic phase of Covid19. With mass quarantines are going in on in Vietnam, South Korea & now Italy with Italy not even able to identify their superspreader(s). Quarantining is becoming more and more pointless now.

 

From what I found, it looked like the SARS-CoV-2 virus is very similar to the HIV virus with them both being RNA viruses. Isn't PrEP help preventing RNA viruses from replicating?

 

Even though to my health plan I'm on Truvada full time but I'm actually not. With my hiring pattern being very predictable, I usually get on Truvada 2 weeks before hiring and continue 1 week after. Then I stop and then start the whole cycle again for the next hire.

 

If Truvada also helps with Covid19, I'm willing to risk bone and kidney damage to go on Truvada full time until this thing blows over. Any doctor in the house would like to chime in?

 

I'm sorry that I have no info about Covid19. What I wanted to let you know so that it might be useful is that there is now a replacement drug for Truvada with much less possible harm to kidneys and bone mass. The name of the drug is Descovy. My primary physician substituted one for the other. Moreover, if you were on the manufacturer's program where they pay your co-pay for Truvada, they will still pay it if you switch over to Descovy. I just thought you should know as you seemed worried about kidney and bone damage.

[lonely_john]

My heart sank when I learned this evening that it looked like the World is entering the pandemic phase of Covid19. With mass quarantines are going in on in Vietnam, South Korea & now Italy with Italy not even able to identify their superspreader(s). Quarantining is becoming more and more pointless now.

 

From what I found, it looked like the SARS-CoV-2 virus is very similar to the HIV virus with them both being RNA viruses. Isn't PrEP help preventing RNA viruses from replicating?

 

Even though to my health plan I'm on Truvada full time but I'm actually not. With my hiring pattern being very predictable, I usually get on Truvada 2 weeks before hiring and continue 1 week after. Then I stop and then start the whole cycle again for the next hire.

 

If Truvada also helps with Covid19, I'm willing to risk bone and kidney damage to go on Truvada full time until this thing blows over. Any doctor in the house would like to chime in?

 

Truvada wouldn’t work against ignorance and lack of hygiene.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by lonely_john

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I'm willing to risk bone and kidney damage

 

Realize that unless there are severe pre-existing conditions, this is not an issue for most people.

 

https://www.thebodypro.com/article/truvada-as-prep-does-not-cause-kidney-damage-study

 

If you're really worried, you can now do Descovy for PrEP. The formula has no known issues with kidneys or bone loss.

 

https://www.positivelyaware.com/drug-guides/descovy

[+ keroscenefire]

I had read over the weekend that China was redirecting drugs from HIV patients to fight Covid-19. Wasn’t sure if it was fake news or not. This link, among several others, indicates that HIV drugs are being used in treatment.

 

 

 

https://www.realhealthmag.com/article/china-uses-hiv-meds-treat-new-coronavirus

Interesting...apparently the HIV drug Kaletra may be slightly effective in combating coronavirus. It should be noted that Kaletra is a very different drug than Truvada. Kaletra is a protease inhibitor, which means that it basically prevents HIV from replicating in the body by inhibiting an enzyme used in that process. Many viruses replicate in this way so it makes sense that maybe ones used for HIV could be effective for COVID as well. But Truvada works in a very different way that is more specific to HIV and other retroviruses, so it wouldn't be something they could use for COVID.

[Prime Muscle]

There were news reports that a doctor in India saw promising results when he combined HIV meds with a higher dosage of flu medication. I'm guessing this approach is now under further research.

[+ Tygerscent]

My heart sank when I learned this evening that it looked like the World is entering the pandemic phase of Covid19. With mass quarantines are going in on in Vietnam, South Korea & now Italy with Italy not even able to identify their superspreader(s). Quarantining is becoming more and more pointless now.

 

From what I found, it looked like the SARS-CoV-2 virus is very similar to the HIV virus with them both being RNA viruses. Isn't PrEP help preventing RNA viruses from replicating?

 

Even though to my health plan I'm on Truvada full time but I'm actually not. With my hiring pattern being very predictable, I usually get on Truvada 2 weeks before hiring and continue 1 week after. Then I stop and then start the whole cycle again for the next hire.

 

If Truvada also helps with Covid19, I'm willing to risk bone and kidney damage to go on Truvada full time until this thing blows over. Any doctor in the house would like to chime in?

No... it’s not shown that Descovy or Truvada are effective preventative or treatment prophylactic against Covid19~ Kaletra has been shown effective against SARS and Ebola. Kaletra contains a protease inhibitor not present in Descovy/Truvada

[+ Tygerscent]

Realize that unless there are severe pre-existing conditions, this is not an issue for most people.

 

https://www.thebodypro.com/article/truvada-as-prep-does-not-cause-kidney-damage-study

 

If you're really worried, you can now do Descovy for PrEP. The formula has no known issues with kidneys or bone loss.

 

https://www.positivelyaware.com/drug-guides/descovy

Well... it has a lesser degree of potentially having negative effects on your kidneys~

It is considered safer than the original formulation of Truvada.

“People who used daily Descovy had smaller changes in kidney biomarkers and slightly less bone loss than Truvada...”

More reading: https://www.descovy.com/hcp/renal-function-bmd/renal/renally-impaired

 

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/208215s001lbl.pdf

[LTH]

Incredible 12 weeks clinical trial to see if tenofovir/emtricibatine (245mg/200mg - same dosage as Truvada) or hydroxychloroquine (200mg) or a combination of Truvada+HC will be an effective PrEP against the CCPvirus/CHICOM Flu is now running from early 4/1-6/30 with results concluded by 7/31 at the Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal in Madrid

 

4,000 front line workers are participating.

 

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04334928

 

It looks like there is no conclusive study on Truvada yet as I haven't found one until now. There was a study on Kelatra and it found Kelatea was USELESS.

 

It looked like Kelatra was meant to block the HIV virus from entering the cells and it looks like the cell-entering mechanism of HIV & SARS-CoV-2 are not exactly the same. Thus Kelatra failed to block SARS-CoV-2.

 

I'm praying the Truvada+HC might be the silver bullet.

[Quincy_7]

I just hope those in this threading lauding HIV drugs weren't also attacking Trump on hydroxychloroquine.