Africa: New hope in fight against HIV

AIDS drugs designed to treat HIV can also be used to reduce dramatically the risk of infection among heterosexual couples, two studies conducted in Africa have shown for the first time. The findings add to growing evidence that the type of medicines prescribed since the mid-1990s to treat people who are already sick may also hold the key to slowing or even halting the spread of the disease. The research involving couples in Kenya, Uganda and Botswana found that daily Aids drugs reduced infection rates by an average of at least 62 per cent when compared with a placebo.