Tuesday, March 28, 2006

AP Reports AIDS Drug Shows Prevention Promise

From time to time we will use our blog to report, comment, or complain about the news. Today seems to be a reason to celebrate: Gilead AIDS Drugs Show Prevention Promise By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer © 2006 The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Twenty-five years after the first AIDS cases jolted the world, scientists think they soon may have a pill that people could take to keep from getting the virus that causes the global killer.
Two drugs already used to treat HIV infection have shown such promise at preventing it in monkeys that officials last week said they would expand early tests in healthy high-risk men and women around the world.
"This is the first thing I've seen at this point that I think really could have a prevention impact," said Thomas Folks, a federal scientist since the earliest days of AIDS. "If it works, it could be distributed quickly and could blunt the epidemic."
Condoms and counseling alone have not been enough HIV spreads to 10 people every minute, 5 million every year. A vaccine remains the best hope but none is in sight.
If larger tests show the drugs work, they could be given to people at highest risk of HIV from gay men in American cities to women in Africa who catch the virus from their partners. Read the whole AP story here: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/ap/health/3752244