A pill which prevents people from getting HIV has come a step closer after medication already available in pharmacies was shown to lessen the chances of infection.
Scientists gave the pill, which is currently used to treat people who have contracted the virus, to healthy gay and bisexual men during the three-year global trial.
They discovered daily doses of the pill, Gilead Science's Truvada cut the risk of infection when given with condoms, counselling and other prevention services.
The drug lowered the chances of infection by 44 per cent, and by 73 per cent or more among men who took their pills most faithfully.
Researchers had feared the pills might give a false sense of security and make men less likely to use condoms or to limit their partners, but the opposite happened - risky sex declined.
The results are 'a major advance' that can help curb the epidemic in gay men, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, AIDS prevention chief at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But he warned they may not apply to people exposed to HIV through male-female sex, drug use or other ways. Studies in those groups are under way.
Because Truvada is already on the market, the CDC is rushing to develop guidelines for doctors who want to use it to prevent HIV, and urged people to wait until those are ready.
However, high prices of the pills which cost $5,000 to $14,000 a year in the United States could be prohibitive.
They are sold for roughly $140 a year in some poor countries where they are produced in generic form.
Whether insurers or government health programs should pay for them is one of the tough issues to be sorted out, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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