A panel of US health experts has for the first time backed a drug to prevent HIV infection in healthy people.

一组美国健康专家首次支持健康人服用某种药物来预防艾滋病感染。

The panel recommended US regulators approve the daily pill, Truvada, for use by people considered at high risk of contracting the Aids virus.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not required to follow the panel's advice, but it usually does.

Some health workers and groups active in the HIV community have opposed the approval of the drug.

However, correspondents say the move could prove to be a new milestone¹ in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Truvada is already approved by the FDA for people who are HIV-positive, and is taken along with existing anti-retroviral drugs.

Studies from 2010 showed that Truvada, made by California-based Gilead Sciences, reduced the risk of HIV in healthy gay men - and among HIV-negative heterosexual（异性恋的） partners of people who are HIV-positive - by between 44% and 73%.

June decision

The Antiviral Drugs Advisory² Committee, which advises the FDA, voted 19-3 in favour of prescribing the drug to the highest risk group - non-infected men who have sex with multiple male partners.

They also approved it, by majority votes, for uninfected people with HIV-positive partners and for other groups considered at risk of acquiring HIV through sexual activity.

The votes followed an 11-hour meeting of the panel in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a lengthy³ public comments session.

Opposition⁴ to the prospect⁵ of approving the drug is based on concerns that users could gain a false sense of security, and fears of a drug-resistant strain of HIV.

There is also concern that the high cost of Truvada could divert limited funding from more cost-effective options.

"We need to slow down. I care too much about my community not to speak my concerns," said Joey Terrill, of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, which campaigned against the drug's approval.

Nurse Karen Haughey told the panel: "Truvada needs to be taken every day, 100% of the time, and my experience as a registered nurse tells me that won't happen.