{"id":94374,"date":"2015-02-25T14:15:47","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T14:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=94374"},"modified":"2015-02-25T14:15:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T14:15:47","slug":"give-hiv-drugs-to-healthy-gay-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/02\/give-hiv-drugs-to-healthy-gay-men\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Give HIV drugs to healthy gay men’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Healthy gay men should be offered daily HIV drugs to prevent infections, say campaigners.<\/p>\n
A UK study, on 545 high-risk men, found one case of HIV could be stopped for every 13 men treated for a year.<\/p>\n
The research team says it would be similar to the pill for women and would not encourage risky sex.<\/p>\n
The findings have been described as a “game changer” and the NHS is considering how to adopt them.<\/p>\n
Antiretroviral drugs have transformed HIV treatment and patients have a near-normal life expectancy.<\/p>\n
Now there is a growing body of research showing the drugs can have a dramatic role in preventing new infections.<\/p>\n
Massive fall<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Gay men face a high risk of contracting HIV. In London, one in eight gay men has HIV while the figure is one in 26 in the rest of the UK.<\/p>\n In the first year of the study, 19 people developed HIV out of the 269 men who were not given the medicine.<\/p>\n There were just two cases in the 276 patients given preventative drugs – a fall of 86%.<\/p>\n