AIDS Conference: Hope For a Cure and Treatment Guideline Changes

2. A New Way of Preventing HIV
The idea of “treatment as prevention” also informed the discussion of Truvada’s recent approval to be prescribed as a preventive measure for HIV-negative people at high risk of contracting the virus. Some conference attendees questioned the wisdom of using the drug for prevention, given its cost, the possibility of side effects, and the danger that people taking it may become lax about safer-sex precautions. Harvard University researcher and conference presenter Douglas Krakower said, however, that he considers it irresponsible “to withhold strategies that may be protective.”