PrEP Emtricitabine/Tenofovir (Generic Truvada) Treatment

Emtricitabine/Tenofovir tablets are a type of HIV medication known as PrEP and are the generic form of a medicine called Truvada. It’s designed for people who are HIV negative but are at high risk of exposure to HIV, helping to reduce your chances of catching the virus from sex by up to 99% when used as recommended. If you have a HIV positive partner, are unaware of the HIV status of your sexual partners, are at risk of being exposed to HIV through recreational drug use, or are at high risk of HIV for any other reason, this product can help to keep your HIV negative status negative.  

How Emtricitabine/Tenofovir tablets work to reduce your chances of catching HIV

Emtricitabine/Tenofovir tablets are a kind of PrEP that uses the active ingredients emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil which are antiretroviral drugs. These ingredients work together to prevent HIV by blocking an enzyme that the HIV virus needs to reproduce. This helps to keep it from spreading and offers you protection if you’re exposed to HIV through sex, injections, or other methods of transmission.

Directions

You should always take these tablets as you have been instructed to do so by your doctor. However, the most common doses you will be given are as follows:

• Treating HIV in adults: Take one tablet every day, with food whenever possible
• Treating HIV in adolescents aged 12 – 18 who weigh more than 35kg (5.5 stone): Take one tablet every day, with food whenever possible
• Reducing the risk of HIV in adults: Take one tablet every day, with food whenever possible
• Reducing the risk of HIV in adolescents aged 12 – 18 who weigh more than 35kg (5.5 stone): Take one tablet every day, with food whenever possible

On-demand dosing

On-demand dosing is when you take PrEP to prepare for a time when you know you’ll be at high risk of HIV. For example, some people don’t take PrEP all the time but may take it before they go on holiday or before a party or other social event. As PrEP takes a week to become effective in your system, to use the on-demand method you would start taking your tablets 7 days before the event. You would then need to continue taking your tablets until you no longer need protection (for example, until the end of your holiday) and then for an extra 7 days. So, if you went for a weeklong holiday, you would take PrEP for one week before your holiday, the week of your holiday itself, and for a week after your holiday.