New Pill to Reduce HIV Risk

Study finds daily pill lowers risk of HIV infection.
ABC World News (11/23, story 5, 1:25, Sawyer) reported "a major announcement in the fight against AIDS. A drug" now "has doctors everywhere using the word breakthrough." The CBS Evening News (11/23, story 5, 0:25, Couric) reported, "A new study finds Truvada [emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate], a pill that treats HIV infection, can also prevent the virus from spreading. Researchers say giving Truvada to high-risk men along with counseling and condom use reduced their risk of getting HIV by an average of 44%." NBC Nightly News (11/23, story 8, 0:35, Williams) reported, "Experts say the finding could lead to wider use of the drug for high-risk patients but they emphasize one important thing. It's not a reason for anyone to abandon standard HIV prevention measures."
On its front page, the New York Times (11/24, A1, McNeil) reports, "In the study, published Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that the men taking Truvada, a common combination of two antiretroviral drugs, were 44 percent less likely to get infected with the virus that causes AIDS than an equal number taking a placebo." The "results are the best news in the AIDS field in years, even better than this summer's revelation that a vaginal microbicide protected 39 percent of all the women testing it and 54 percent of those who used it faithfully."
According to the Time (11/23, Park) "Healthland" blog, "Fauci is particularly encouraged by the data, since a closer look at the difference in HIV infection rates among those taking medications suggests that any exposure to the potent anti-HIV drugs can be effective in thwarting infection." For example, "among those in the drug arm, the volunteers who showed any measurable level of medication, no matter how faithfully they were popping their daily pills, had a 13-fold lower rate of HIV infection than those who showed no measurable level of drug in their system." Fauci added "that more research will be needed to assess the effectiveness of the drugs in preventing infection among women, as well as heterosexual men."
The AP (11/24) also quotes Fauci, who said, "'This is an exciting finding...but is only one study in one specific study population,' so its impact on others is unknown."
The Boston Globe (11/24, A1, Cooney) reports on its front page, "Researchers had feared the pills might give a false sense of security and make men less likely to use condoms or to limit their partners, but the opposite happened -- risky sex declined."
The Washington Post (11/24, Brown) reports that the study "adds to a growing menu of strategies for preventing infection in ways other than by urging people to change their behavior. While globally the AIDS epidemic is starting to ebb, gay men remain a risk group in which rates of infection are growing in both rich countries and the developing world." The Wall Street Journal (11/24, McKay, Marcus, subscription required), Bloomberg News (11/24, Bennett, Waters), HealthDay (11/23, Gardner), WebMD (11/23, DeNoon), the San Francisco Chronicle (11/24, A1, Allday), Medscape (11/23, Lowes), ABC News (11/23), the Los Angeles Times (11/23, Maugh) "Booster Shots" blog, the CNN (11/23, Young) "The Chart" blog, and the NPR (11/23, Fulton) "Shots" blog also covered the story.
UNAIDS report says global AIDS epidemic slowing. USA Today (11/24, Sternberg) reports, "The global AIDS epidemic has taken a turn for the better with fewer new infections than a decade ago, but overall progress is slow and much work lies ahead, the United Nation's leading AIDS agency reported Tuesday." A "new report by UNAIDS says that 2.6 million people became infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, in 2009, about 20% fewer new infections than 1999 when the epidemic was at its peak." The report "comes a day after researchers reported that a daily dose of a widely available HIV drug, Truvada [emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate], can prevent infections in gay and bisexual men."
Gilead asks FDA to approve HIV single pill treatment combination. The AP (11/24) reports, "Drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. said Tuesday it asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve a single pill combination of its HIV treatment Truvada and Tibotec Pharmaceuticals' rilpivirine."