(WAAY) - There's a new drug designed to prevent HIV.
1.82 million Americans are living with HIV, and one in eight don't know they are infected. There is no cure, but there are almost 30 drugs that people can take to help them stay healthy.
And now there is one FDA-approved drug that people at risk for HIV can take to prevent them from becoming infected.
Dave Rueschhoff, 35, has been an outspoken member of the gay community in St. Louis his entire adult life. Dave has always taken steps to keep himself healthy. These days, that includes a regular dose of prevention.
"It's one thing in addition to condom use, and other safe sex practices that can help mitigate your risk and chance of getting HIV," Rueschhoff said.
It's called PrEP, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. It's two medicines combined in one pill: Tenfovir and Emtricitabine.
They're both medicines that we use all the time in people who are HIV infected, so we have a long, long, long experience with safety," said Dr. Rachel Presti, an assistant professor of infectious disease medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In some clinical trials of PrEP, researchers found the drugs were between 80 and 90 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission, as long as patients took the pill as prescribed at least four times a week.
Presti is an expert in HIV research at Washington University. She says despite new advances, more than 37,000 Americans are diagnosed every year.
"I have many of friends of mine that have unfortunately been diagnosed with HIV," Rueschhoff said. "When I tell them about PrEP, they say, 'I wish I knew. I wish I knew there was something like that out there.'"
Presti says PrEP does not work on patients who are HIV positive, only those who test negative for the virus. PrEP is covered by some insurances, nd for others there is a program sponsored by the drug maker, Gilead, to provide it at low or no cost.
