HIV/AIDS Treatment
Bottles of antiretroviral drug Truvada are displayed in San Anselmo, Calif.
Bottles of antiretroviral drug Truvada are displayed in San Anselmo, Calif.
Optimism is a rare among HIV/AIDS experts, NPR science correspondent Richard Knox tells Talk of the Nation's Neal Conan. But many feel that 2011 will be remembered as the year the world learned how to wind down the pandemic. That hope stems from accumulating evidence on four different prevention strategies, plus one older proven approach.
In other words, says Knox, the same drugs being used around the world to treat HIV infections can also prevent infection. Called "treatment as prevention," the approach also involves prescribing anti-retroviral drugs to uninfected people at risk of infection — individuals such as sex workers and those in relationships with infected people.
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