A ONCE-DAILY pill can protect men at high risk of HIV from becoming infected, a ground-breaking study shows.
The international trial, which has generated much excited anticipation, provides proof for the first time that pills used to treat HIV/Aids can also prevent it.
Campaigners greeted the results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, with enthusiasm, suggesting they could fundamentally change the approach to preventing HIV in some groups of people.
The findings are good news for men who have sex with men, the population in whom the drugs were tried. There were 43.8 per cent fewer HIV infections among those who took Truvada, the once-a-day tablet containing two drugs, emtricitabine and tenofovir, than among those who did not. The protection was much greater in those who took the tablets consistently: it reduced the risk of those who took it 90 per cent or more of the time by 72.8 per cent .
But Aids experts warned gay and bisexual men that drugs did not offer an instant answer. Protection was low in those who did not take them regularly.