Pills against AIDS have been invented
According to two recent medical studies, new pills containing drugs against AIDS significantly decrease the risk of humans being infected with the deadly immunodeficiency virus, writes NewYorkTimes.
New Truvadaand Viread drugs, the effect of which is described in the reports of scientists from Washington and Botswana, have been tested on heterosexual couples and have shown surprisingly successful results. This has become a new and, probably, final step in development of drugs, the analogues of which have previously been tested only on gays.
The authors of these studies say that they have not set the impossible task to invent a magic pill that would protect a human from AIDS with one hundred percent probability.
Until recently, there have been only two drugs against HIV - condoms and abstinence. Now this unenviable arsenal has been replenished with two much more efficient means. The drug called Truvada is intended for prevention of the deadly disease and Viread drug - for treatment of infected patients. Tests of both drugs are described in “PartnersPrEP” report.
Truvada is made on the basis of tenofovir and emtricitabine, Viread contains only tenofovir. The tests of the two drugs involved 4758 couples from Kenya and Uganda. One partner in each pair was HIV-positive. As a result of these experiments, the risk that the volunteers daily taking Truvada pills will be infected with AIDS has decreased by 73%. The probability that the couples taking Viread will be infected with HIV has decreased by 62%.
The authors of “TDF2” report have performed another test on Truvada. The tests have been conducted on 1200 sexually active and healthy couples. The results of these studies have shown that the drug ensures a 63-percent protection against AIDS infection.
The scientists-developers will tell about their achievements in the sphere of struggling against HIV at the press conference in Rome, which is to be held next week. According to researchers, the drugs may be available for sale already in a few months. However, before the drugs appear in stores, they should be tested on pregnant women.
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