Assessing the impact of using antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure vaccines

The ideal intervention against HIV/ AIDS infection will be a highly effective vaccine with long lasting-protection, but unfortunately that is currently non-existent. In this manuscript the potential of antiretroviral drugs when used as pre-exposure vaccines in the fight against the spread of HIV is explored using a mathematical model. Results from the analysis of the reproduction number suggest that use of antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure vaccines for the uninfected in conjunction to their use as treatment regimen for the infected will contribute meaningfully to curtail the spread of the epidemic. This result is also supported by numerical simulations which show low levels of infection when both interventions are in place.