AIDS pill may help protect IV drug users

ATLANTA -- Doctors should consider giving a daily AIDS drug to another high risk group to help prevent infections -- people who inject heroin, methamphetamines or other drugs, U.S. health officials said yesterday.

A similar recommendation is already in place for gay men and heterosexual couples at high risk of catching HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The latest advice was triggered by the results of a study done in Thailand that showed the AIDS drug tenofovir protected many drug users. Volunteers who took the daily pill were about 50 percent less likely to become infected than those given a dummy pill.

The research by the CDC and the Thailand government was published online yesterday by the journal Lancet.

Based on the findings, the CDC recommended that doctors consider prescribing tenofovir to those who inject drugs. It blocks the virus from making copies and spreading through the body. In the United States, tenofovir is included in an AIDS drug called Truvada.

HIV infections in drug users worldwide account for about 1 in 10 new cases each year and the vast majority of infections in some places in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In the United States, they represent about 1 in 13 new cases.

People who inject drugs can spread the AIDS virus to others through sharing tainted needles or sex.

How many people already take the drug in America to protect against infection isn't known. And officials acknowledge it's not clear how many of the nation's 1 million injection drug users would have the money or insurance to pay for it.

Truvada came on the market in 2004 to treat people who already have the AIDS virus. Since then, six studies have been done to see if it could prevent infections.