For the First Time, an Expert Panel Is Recommending a Drug to Prevent High-Risk Groups From Getting HIV

Over the past few decades, doctors and researchers have made admirable progress in controlling the spread of HIV, mainly by using anti-HIV drugs in powerful combinations that can make it harder for the virus to infect cells and pump out more copies of itself. But as any infectious-disease expert knows, preventing new infections is equally as important as treating existing cases to contain an epidemic. And in the U.S. each year, nearly 40,000 people are still newly diagnosed with HIV.

Over the past few decades, doctors and researchers have made admirable progress in controlling the spread of HIV, mainly by using anti-HIV drugs in powerful combinations that can make it harder for the virus to infect cells and pump out more copies of itself. But as any infectious-disease expert knows, preventing new infections is equally as important as treating existing cases to contain an epidemic. And in the U.S. each year, nearly 40,000 people are still newly diagnosed with HIV.