US health officials say pill can also help prevent AIDS infection in injection drug users

Friday, June 14, 2013

ATLANTA — Doctors should consider giving a daily AIDS drug to another high risk group to help prevent infections — people who shoot heroin, methamphetamines or other injection drugs, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

A similar recommendation is already in place for gay men and heterosexual couples at high risk of catching HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The latest advice was triggered by the results of a study done in Thailand that showed the AIDS drug tenofovir protected many drug users. Volunteers who took the daily pill were about 50 percent less likely to become infected than those given a dummy pill.

“This study completes the story” telling how HIV drugs can protect people at highest risk of infection, said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of AIDS prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care
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healthcare technology, infectious diseases