Kaiser Permanente, an insurance firm, has released data this week showing that the Truvada drug has successfully blocked the transmission of HIV between those who use it and their sexual partners. The study has shown that stopping the spread of the HIV virus is now possible.

Truvada was initially created to slow down the progress of the HIV virus in the human body. It was intended for people who are more likely to be exposed to HIV such as homosexual males engaging in sexual intercourse with more than one partner.

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The two and a half year clinical study is included in this week's publication of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Journal. More than 650 patients participated in the study with each participant taking the Truvada drug for more than six months.

Many of the Truvada participants are in their late thirties and include males, who had sexual relations with other males. They are most likely to be sexually promiscuous even if their sexual partners are infected with the HIV virus.

After the study more than a hundred participants were interviewed by the researchers. A majority of them maintained the same number of sexual partners during the period of the clinical study, while the rest either increased or decreased the number of their sexual partners. Slightly more than 50 percent of the patients maintained the use of condoms, while the rest decreased their usage of condoms.

Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Doctor Jonathan Volk said that none of the participants using the drug has caused new infections of HIV. Every participant in the study was subjected to HIV test every quarter. Researchers are confident that the dreaded HIV virus can now be treated as normal disease such as diabetes.

The drug's developer Gilead Sciences combined the drug emtricitabine with another compound, tenofovir in order to create Truvada.

In order to be effective, Truvada must be taken daily and users have reported some side effects. Participants in the study spent a monthly average of $50 for the drug. Once Truvada is approved for the general public, the price is likely to go up. Drug advocates believed that the drug can someday prevent the spread of HIV within the span of a few years.

Although, Truvada prevented HIV virus from infecting the user, it did not prevent many of them from acquiring other sexually transmitted disease such as syphilis, chalmydia or gonorrhea.

TagsTruvada, emtricitabine, tenofovir, kaiser permanente, clinical infectious diseases journal, Gilead Sciences, HIV virus, AIDS, homesexual, HIV drug