Twice-yearly shots used to treat AIDS were 100% effective in preventing new infections in women, according to study results published Wednesday.

There were no infections in the young women and girls that got the shots in a study of about 5,000 in South Africa and Uganda, researchers reported. In a group given daily prevention pills, roughly 2% ended up catching HIV from infected sex partners.

“To see this level of protection is stunning,” said Salim Abdool Karim of the injections. He is director of an AIDS research center in Durban, South Africa, who was not part of the research.

The results in women were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at an AIDS conference in Munich. Gilead paid for the study and some of the researchers are company employees. Because of the surprisingly encouraging results, the study was stopped early and all participants were offered the shots, also known as lenacapavir.

  • ShadowRam
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    -22 months ago

    twice-yearly

    I wonder why they went with that, instead of saying bi-annually

    • @deranger
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      2 months ago

      Is biannual twice yearly or every two years?

      If you look it up, it’s both. IMO all these words are useless. Biweekly, bimonthly, etc.

      • Clay_pidgin
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        62 months ago

        Instead of biweekly I specify fortnightly. Is there a bimonthly equivalent? Fortweekly?

        • @[email protected]
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          72 months ago

          We should make it a thing. Let’s regroup in a fortweek and see how we’re getting on.

        • @Kanzar
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          32 months ago

          If you use the word fortnight, it’s likely you aren’t from North America.

          • Clay_pidgin
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            22 months ago

            I am American, but I won’t use biweekly because it is ambiguous.

      • BarqsHasBite
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        32 months ago

        I think it’s trended to mean every 2. The original commentator wants chaos.

    • @[email protected]
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      102 months ago

      It is clearer. What I learned at work is to write documents in high school language so that everyone can understand them.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        For research studies you are unironically required to write consent forms so a middle schooler can understand them because that’s the average level of comprehension in the USA

    • Flying SquidM
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      72 months ago

      They could have gone with “every six months” too. I think any of them work, although as other say biannually can mean every two years as well, leading to confusion.