Giving injecting drug users a daily pill against HIV nearly halved their risk of infection by the AIDS virus, a pioneering study published on June 13 said. The four-year research strengthens convictions that antiretroviral drugs can prevent HIV infection, rather than simply treat the virus after someone has been infected, it said.
Thai and US doctors recruited 2,411 volunteers who were attending drug-treatment clinics in Bangkok. At the start of the study, the participants used injecting drugs and did not have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The volunteers were divided into two groups: one took a daily dose of tenofovir, a frontline HIV drug; the other took a dummy pill called a placebo. Both groups were offered monthly testing for HIV, condoms, counselling and methadone treatment to wean them off opiate drugs.
By the end of the four years, 17 had become infected in the tenofovir group, and 33 in the placebo group.
This amounted to an average reduction in infection risk of 48.9 percent among tenofovir takers. But it rose to more than 70 percent among those who adhered most closely to the daily pill-taking.
The probe found no evidence of viral resistance nor of any serious side effects from taking tenofovir.
The study, published online in The Lancet, is the latest demonstration that so-called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, can shield groups badly at risk from HIV, said the authors.
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