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> Daily pills take a lot of time investment; monthly shots are better That is a matter of opinion. How much time do you think it takes to swallow a pill?

t-writescode 2y ago
You need to be in the same place, at the same time, every day, and always have them with you, continually. You also need to keep them dry and at room temperature all the time, so no leaving them in your car. Here's another example of a pill that needs to be taken every day, at approximately the same time of day: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/birth-control-pill/how-effective-is-the-birth-control-pill https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/birth-... From this article on that pill, > But people aren’t perfect and it’s easy to forget or miss pills — so in reality the pill is about 93% effective. That means about 7 out of 100 pill users get pregnant each year. You mess up and you have HIV for life. It's better to have something that provides more stable protection :)
- 2Gkashmiri 2y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directly_observed_treatment,_short-course https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directly_observed_treatment,... This is already possible by DOTS. In India it did wonders
  - rcxdude 2y ago
    It's also quite expensive
  - slashnode 2y ago
    DOTS is effective for TB because it’s a time-limited treatment (usually 4 months for drug susceptible strains of TB) and is only relevant for treating infected individuals DOTS wouldn’t be feasible for a prophylactic treatment like this as the number of participants would be huge and the treatment period is indefinite (ie: the patient’s lifespan)
  - saagarjha 2y ago
    > Directly observed treatment For a sexually transmitted disease? Harder than you'd expect, considering people are reticent about their private lives. > short-course This needs to be continued forever, as far as I understand.
mort96 2y ago
I know from experience that I'm not able to take a vitamin D pill every day in the winter months to combat winter depression. It's actually kinda difficult to build habits like that, and I'd have to remember to bring it with me wherever I may go and stay for a couple of days.
- b112 2y ago
  Interesting. Such variance in humans. I find such things inordinately simple. I wake, stretch, urinate, go take my vitamins and drink two glasses of water. A third follows me to my current home office, where I process emails, alerts, whatever may be. I find the best time to triage overnight emails is when I'm not quite awake yet to realise I'm doing it. Less pain that way. The key is it being part of a routine, and the easiest is a part of the wake routine. At least for me. Which is why I find human variance interesting. Meanwhile scheduling something 6+ months out (a doctor's appointment, or maybe at a pharmacy) for a shot is quite difficult to keep on time. I have to schedule, I have to keep free, I have to keep it in my mental space (calendars on phones help, but still...). I literally don't know what part of the planet I will be on in a week. How on Earth could I know where to schedule such a thing, months or even weeks in advance? Yet I bet for the parent poster, scheduling things like this is a breeze. Wild. Totally incomprehensible for me, as maybe it being easy for me to daily schedule is for them?
  - n4r9 2y ago
    How do you ensure that you always have a sufficient stock of vitamins either you, despite being in a different part of the world on a weekly basis? Do you have kids, if so how do you deal with frequent disruptions to the morning routine? Do you not have days where you just need to get up and go e.g. to catch a flight, get to a meeting, take a kid to school, or because you stayed up late and got drunk, etc... and taking vitamins took a back seat?
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      > Do you have kids, if so how do you deal with frequent disruptions to the morning routine? Do you not have days where you just need to get up and go e.g. to catch a flight, get to a meeting, take a kid to school, or because you stayed up late and got drunk, etc... and taking vitamins took a back seat? This is crazy. You deal with the morning routine by taking your pills when the alarm goes off, because there's nothing the kids can be doing that won't wait for that. Flying, driving, and driving are exactly the same. Take your pill when the alarm goes off. If you drank so much that it rendered you unconscious through the time you needed to take your pill, the solution is "don't do that". That's not exactly an unavoidable necessity of life.
Pikamander2 2y ago
What's not a matter of opinion is low adherence rates; doctors regularly struggle to get patients take their medication consistently and on time. Having a shot like this be widely available will be an important stepping stone for eradicating HIV.
fennecbutt 2y ago
As someone who takes prep what a silly question. Of course it's easier to get a shot than to take individual pills, I think people would universally agree on that. Also with prep, since you have to continue dosing 2 days after last activity you get awkward situations where you left it at home or get distracted by life events. I think this is more common because most people do event based dosing rather than continuous (which would form a habit of taking it every day).
- dbbk 2y ago
  I mean broadly yes but not universally. Some people have fears of needles etc.

t-writescode 2y ago

You need to be in the same place, at the same time, every day, and always have them with you, continually. You also need to keep them dry and at room temperature all the time, so no leaving them in your car. Here's another example of a pill that needs to be taken every day, at approximately the same time of day: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/birth-control-pill/how-effective-is-the-birth-control-pill https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/birth-... From this article on that pill, > But people aren’t perfect and it’s easy to forget or miss pills — so in reality the pill is about 93% effective. That means about 7 out of 100 pill users get pregnant each year. You mess up and you have HIV for life. It's better to have something that provides more stable protection :)

2Gkashmiri 2y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directly_observed_treatment,_short-course https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directly_observed_treatment,... This is already possible by DOTS. In India it did wonders
- rcxdude 2y ago
  It's also quite expensive
- slashnode 2y ago
  DOTS is effective for TB because it’s a time-limited treatment (usually 4 months for drug susceptible strains of TB) and is only relevant for treating infected individuals DOTS wouldn’t be feasible for a prophylactic treatment like this as the number of participants would be huge and the treatment period is indefinite (ie: the patient’s lifespan)
- saagarjha 2y ago
  > Directly observed treatment For a sexually transmitted disease? Harder than you'd expect, considering people are reticent about their private lives. > short-course This needs to be continued forever, as far as I understand.

mort96 2y ago

I know from experience that I'm not able to take a vitamin D pill every day in the winter months to combat winter depression. It's actually kinda difficult to build habits like that, and I'd have to remember to bring it with me wherever I may go and stay for a couple of days.

b112 2y ago
Interesting. Such variance in humans. I find such things inordinately simple. I wake, stretch, urinate, go take my vitamins and drink two glasses of water. A third follows me to my current home office, where I process emails, alerts, whatever may be. I find the best time to triage overnight emails is when I'm not quite awake yet to realise I'm doing it. Less pain that way. The key is it being part of a routine, and the easiest is a part of the wake routine. At least for me. Which is why I find human variance interesting. Meanwhile scheduling something 6+ months out (a doctor's appointment, or maybe at a pharmacy) for a shot is quite difficult to keep on time. I have to schedule, I have to keep free, I have to keep it in my mental space (calendars on phones help, but still...). I literally don't know what part of the planet I will be on in a week. How on Earth could I know where to schedule such a thing, months or even weeks in advance? Yet I bet for the parent poster, scheduling things like this is a breeze. Wild. Totally incomprehensible for me, as maybe it being easy for me to daily schedule is for them?
- n4r9 2y ago
  How do you ensure that you always have a sufficient stock of vitamins either you, despite being in a different part of the world on a weekly basis? Do you have kids, if so how do you deal with frequent disruptions to the morning routine? Do you not have days where you just need to get up and go e.g. to catch a flight, get to a meeting, take a kid to school, or because you stayed up late and got drunk, etc... and taking vitamins took a back seat?
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > Do you have kids, if so how do you deal with frequent disruptions to the morning routine? Do you not have days where you just need to get up and go e.g. to catch a flight, get to a meeting, take a kid to school, or because you stayed up late and got drunk, etc... and taking vitamins took a back seat? This is crazy. You deal with the morning routine by taking your pills when the alarm goes off, because there's nothing the kids can be doing that won't wait for that. Flying, driving, and driving are exactly the same. Take your pill when the alarm goes off. If you drank so much that it rendered you unconscious through the time you needed to take your pill, the solution is "don't do that". That's not exactly an unavoidable necessity of life.

Pikamander2 2y ago

What's not a matter of opinion is low adherence rates; doctors regularly struggle to get patients take their medication consistently and on time. Having a shot like this be widely available will be an important stepping stone for eradicating HIV.

fennecbutt 2y ago

As someone who takes prep what a silly question. Of course it's easier to get a shot than to take individual pills, I think people would universally agree on that. Also with prep, since you have to continue dosing 2 days after last activity you get awkward situations where you left it at home or get distracted by life events. I think this is more common because most people do event based dosing rather than continuous (which would form a habit of taking it every day).

dbbk 2y ago
I mean broadly yes but not universally. Some people have fears of needles etc.