This isn't the one about the antibodies I posted a while back:
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/s...04-scientists-discover-aids-breakthrough.html
Now there's also a pill:
Daily doses of Truvada helped prevent healthy gay men from catching HIV through sex with an infected partner, a study has found.
Scientists make breakthrough in AIDS fight
Scientists make breakthrough in AIDS fight - World - TheChronicleHerald.ca
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MILWAUKEE — Scientists have an exciting breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. A pill already used to treat HIV infection turns out to be a powerful weapon in protecting healthy gay men from catching the virus, a global study found.
Daily doses of Truvada cut the risk of infection by 44 per cent when given with condoms, counselling and other prevention services. Men who took their pills most faithfully had even more protection, up to 73 per cent.
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 underway now.
The news came as UNAIDS announced that the global epidemic was slowing — new cases dropped nearly 20 per cent over the last decade and about 33 million people are living with HIV now. Health officials credit part of the decline to wider condom use, and on Tuesday the Vatican said that using a condom is a lesser evil than infecting a sexual partner with HIV — further expanding what some see as Pope Benedict XVI’s softening stance on this issue.
"This is a great day in the fight against AIDS . . . a major milestone," said a statement from Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a non-profit group that works on HIV prevention.
Because Truvada is already on the market, the CDC is rushing to develop guidelines for doctors using it for HIV prevention, and urged people to wait until those are ready.
"It’s not time for gay and bisexual men to throw out their condoms," Fenton said. The pill "should never be seen as a first line of defence against HIV."
As a practical matter, price could limit use. The pills cost from $5,000 to $14,000 a year in the United States, but only 39 cents a day in some poor countries where they are sold in generic form.
Whether insurers or government health programs should pay for them is one of the tough issues to be sorted out, and cost-effectiveness analyses should help, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"This is an exciting finding," but it "is only one study in one specific study population," so its impact on others is unknown, Fauci said.
His institute sponsored the study with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Results were reported at a news conference Tuesday and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is the third AIDS prevention victory in about a year. In September 2009, scientists announced that a vaccine they are now trying to improve had protected one in three people from getting HIV in a study in Thailand. In July, research in South Africa showed that a vaginal gel spiked with an AIDS drug could cut nearly in half a woman’s chances of getting HIV from an infected partner.
Gay and bisexual men account for nearly half of the more than one million Americans living with HIV. Worldwide, more than 7,000 new infections occur each day. Unlike in the U.S., only five to 10 per cent of global cases involve sex between men.
"The condom is still the first line of defence," said the study leader, Dr. Robert M. Grant of the Gladstone Institutes, a private foundation affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
AIDS drugs already are used to prevent infection in health care workers accidentally exposed to HIV, and in babies whose pregnant mothers are on the medication. Taking these drugs before exposure to the virus may keep it from taking hold, just as taking malaria pills in advance can prevent that disease when someone is bitten by an infected mosquito.
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At least they're finally getting somewhere in regards to fighting this illness.
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/s...04-scientists-discover-aids-breakthrough.html
Now there's also a pill:
Daily doses of Truvada helped prevent healthy gay men from catching HIV through sex with an infected partner, a study has found.
Scientists make breakthrough in AIDS fight
Scientists make breakthrough in AIDS fight - World - TheChronicleHerald.ca
-------------------------------------------------------------
MILWAUKEE — Scientists have an exciting breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. A pill already used to treat HIV infection turns out to be a powerful weapon in protecting healthy gay men from catching the virus, a global study found.
Daily doses of Truvada cut the risk of infection by 44 per cent when given with condoms, counselling and other prevention services. Men who took their pills most faithfully had even more protection, up to 73 per cent.
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 underway now.
The news came as UNAIDS announced that the global epidemic was slowing — new cases dropped nearly 20 per cent over the last decade and about 33 million people are living with HIV now. Health officials credit part of the decline to wider condom use, and on Tuesday the Vatican said that using a condom is a lesser evil than infecting a sexual partner with HIV — further expanding what some see as Pope Benedict XVI’s softening stance on this issue.
"This is a great day in the fight against AIDS . . . a major milestone," said a statement from Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a non-profit group that works on HIV prevention.
Because Truvada is already on the market, the CDC is rushing to develop guidelines for doctors using it for HIV prevention, and urged people to wait until those are ready.
"It’s not time for gay and bisexual men to throw out their condoms," Fenton said. The pill "should never be seen as a first line of defence against HIV."
As a practical matter, price could limit use. The pills cost from $5,000 to $14,000 a year in the United States, but only 39 cents a day in some poor countries where they are sold in generic form.
Whether insurers or government health programs should pay for them is one of the tough issues to be sorted out, and cost-effectiveness analyses should help, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"This is an exciting finding," but it "is only one study in one specific study population," so its impact on others is unknown, Fauci said.
His institute sponsored the study with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Results were reported at a news conference Tuesday and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is the third AIDS prevention victory in about a year. In September 2009, scientists announced that a vaccine they are now trying to improve had protected one in three people from getting HIV in a study in Thailand. In July, research in South Africa showed that a vaginal gel spiked with an AIDS drug could cut nearly in half a woman’s chances of getting HIV from an infected partner.
Gay and bisexual men account for nearly half of the more than one million Americans living with HIV. Worldwide, more than 7,000 new infections occur each day. Unlike in the U.S., only five to 10 per cent of global cases involve sex between men.
"The condom is still the first line of defence," said the study leader, Dr. Robert M. Grant of the Gladstone Institutes, a private foundation affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
AIDS drugs already are used to prevent infection in health care workers accidentally exposed to HIV, and in babies whose pregnant mothers are on the medication. Taking these drugs before exposure to the virus may keep it from taking hold, just as taking malaria pills in advance can prevent that disease when someone is bitten by an infected mosquito.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
At least they're finally getting somewhere in regards to fighting this illness.