Experimental drug found to be 89 percent more effective at preventing HIV infection than Truvada pills<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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MONDAY, Nov. 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) — An experimental injection drug works better than daily pills to protect women from getting HIV from an infected sex partner, researchers say.<\/p>\n
The drug cabotegravir is given every two months. It was 89 percent more effective at preventing HIV infection than Truvada pills, but both reduced the risk, the Associated Press<\/em> reported. The study, which took place in Africa, was stopped early due to the promising results. The new findings echo those announced earlier this year from a study that compared the shots against the daily pills in gay men, the AP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n “This is a major, major advance,” according to Anthony Fauci, M.D., the top infectious disease doctor at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. “I don’t think we can overemphasize the importance of this study.”<\/p>\n Young women may be two times more likely than men to get HIV in some areas of the world, said one of the study leaders, Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, M.B.B.Ch., Ph.D., of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, the AP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n