Cure For AIDS? Researchers Find ‘Clear Potential’ To End Epidemic With Anti-HIV Infection Drug

Researchers have made tremendous strides toward creating a cure for HIV and AIDS in recent months, but a Welsh-government commissioned report published Wednesday revealed the best existing chance of eradicating the global epidemic could be anti-HIV infection drugs like pre-exposure prophylaxis, otherwise known as PrEP.

The new report provided a strong case for the Welsh National Health Service to allow the prescription and sale of PrEP, currently unavailable in the nation’s healthcare markets. The HIV-preventive medicine is a daily pill taken orally with a "clear potential" to reduce the spread of the virus responsible for more than a million deaths in 2015 alone, the report said.

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Wales only provides medicine for patients with HIV or AIDS, including antiretroviral and post-exposure treatments. Meanwhile, the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group will begin researching whether PrEP is a cost-effective prescription drug to introduce to the national market.

"The review of evidence suggests that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention is highly effective clinically when used in the right client groups and in the right dose with appropriate monitoring," Dr. Giri Shankar, chair of the research group behind the report, said in a BBC interview Wednesday. "As such, it is of paramount importance that, regardless of whether PrEP is to be provided through the NHS, at the very least, the need for strengthened client and health professional education about PrEP is essential."

Countless nations severely impacted by the global AIDS epidemic have been conducting research on anti-HIV infection medicines and approving the prescription of preventive drugs like PrEP and Truvada, including Kenya, India, France, the United States and Zimbabwe, among plenty others.

The report was one of the first of its kind to be commissioned by the Welsh government, which will consider selling PrEP, as well as a similar anti-HIV infection drug Truvada, as early as April, Welsh officials told the BBC Wednesday.