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US health experts support anti-HIV pill
| DATE: 11 May 2012 |
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| BY: Thabiso Thantsha |
US health experts are backing a pill that can prevent HIV infection.
For the first time, US health expects have backed a drug called Truvada, to prevent HIV infection.
The drug has won the endorsement of a panel of US federal advisers, but according to BBC news, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t need to adhere to the panel’s advice. Some groups involved with the prevention of HIV have opposed the approval of the drug, fearing that it might give a false sense of security, leading to condoms not being used to prevent the infection of HIV/Aids.
However, some correspondents have suggested that the move to approve the pill could prove to be a new milestone in the fight against HIV/aids.
Truvada is already approved by the FDA for people who are HIV-positive and is taken along with existing antiretroviral drugs. Truvada has been used as a treatment for people infected with HIV since 2004 in the USA.
Truvada is made by California-based Gilead Sciences and in a study conducted in 2010, it showed it "reduced the risk of HIV in healthy gay men – and among HIV-negative heterosexual partners of people who are HIV-positive – by between 44% and 73%," the BBC article states.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
