A Pill a Day Could Keep HIV Away

Massive 15,000-person trial will test drug's effectiveness

By Matt Cantor

Posted Aug 4, 2008 7:24 AM CDT

Copied

A Pill a Day Could Keep HIV Away — Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez, 12, who is HIV-positive, delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Sunday Aug. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

With 2.7 million people contracting HIV every year, the race is on to test the efficacy of a daily pill meant to prevent the virus, the New York Times reports. After recent unimpressive results in tests of vaccines and microbicides, the PrEP drugs are now some scientists’ leading hope for stopping infection before it starts.

More than 15,000 subjects will participate in the tests, including people from Africa, South America, Asia, and the United States. And there’s no time to lose, said a researcher. “We cannot wait for the study results to begin to prepare for the optimal use and delivery of PrEP,” he noted. We should “make real plans for making PrEP available to those who can benefit from it, as quickly and safely as possible."

Read These Next

Negative press coverage should get TV licenses yanked, Trump says.
Inside one of Pennsylvania's deadliest days for law enforcement.
Here's what late-night hosts had to say about Jimmy Kimmel.
Autopsy is in for Black student found hanged from tree at college.

Report an error