Can the drugs that keep HIV-positive people alive also make it safer to enjoy carefree sex – much as during the pre-AIDS 1970s? Health officials in the USA and elsewhere are trying to find out by conducting trials in which healthy people take drug cocktails that suppress the virus. “The information that we have indicates that this is a very promising approach,” said the University of California, San Francisco’s Robert Grant, overseeing an upcoming study to be conducted in Peru. “The use of anti-viral drugs for prevention has been evaluated in animal models, especially non-human primates. They have shown to be highly effective in preventing acquisition of viruses similar to HIV.” Researchers have already completed one study in Ghana on the subject, known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (or PrEP), and will present the first findings on the topic next week at the International AIDS conference in Toronto. If PrEP works – it will likely take several years to gain a conclusive answer – “it could stand to save thousands from being infected,” said Melanie Thompson, leading a PrEP study in Atlanta.