HIV drug can also protect injection drug users

ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. health officials say doctors should consider giving a daily AIDS drug to another high risk group to prevent infection - people who shoot heroin, methamphetamines or other injection drugs.<br /> <br /> A similar recommendation is already in place for gay men and heterosexual couples.<br /> <br /> The new advice was triggered by a study done in Thailand. Drug users who took the daily pill were about 50 percent less likely to become infected with HIV than those given a dummy pill.<br /> <br /> Drug users represent about 1 in 13 new infections in the U.S. but they account for the majority of cases in Eastern Europe and central Asia.<br /> <br /> The research was done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Thai government. The findings were released Wednesday by the journal Lancet.

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