Recently, in the run-up to an AIDS conference in Rome, two studies were conducted in Africa to find out if HIV drugs along with boosting protection against HIV could also treat symptoms after infection. And the results added weight to previous data and proved that if such drugs are taken daily then while treating HIV they can also reduce the infection risk.

According to the World Health Organization, these studies could massively contribute in preventing HIV transmission. In this regard, Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) also said, "This is a major scientific breakthrough which re-confirms the essential role that antiretroviral medicine has to play in the AIDS response. These studies could help us to reach the tipping point in the HIV epidemic".

For conducting this study, one trial was carried out by the University of Washington in US and during it, around 5,000 couples in Kenya and Uganda was followed. Among these couples, one person had HIV infection and the other did not. Some of the uninfected persons were given HIV medicine tenofovir daily, some were given a combination of two HIV drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine and the remaining were given a placebo pill.

As a result, in comparison to the group given the dummy pill, in the group of single drug 62% had fewer HIV infections, and in the group having combination of drugs 73% had fewer HIV infections.