Drug combination prevents HIV infection in monkeys

From REUTERS: http://today.reuters.com

It also has fewer side effects than some of the older, hard-to-take combination regimens.

Dr. Myron Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said the study suggested that people who know they are at high risk of infection might be able someday to protect themselves by taking a pill.

"Adolescent women in South Africa go from having a 10 percent risk of HIV infection to a 30 percent risk in a matter of two years," said Cohen, who was not involved in the study. "This is a big epidemic that is not going away."

In emerging nations, young women have the highest risk of becoming infected with HIV, often by husbands or boyfriends who refuse to use condoms.

In richer countries, women are also at risk, as are men having sex with other men and injecting drug users. Cohen said these groups may also benefit from taking prophylactic doses of HIV drugs.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration stresses abstinence as the best way to avoid AIDS, but Cohen and other experts said if the epidemic is to be stopped, people should make decisions based on science, rather than moral or emotional judgments.

"There are many other examples of people taking medications to protect themselves from disease," Cohen said.