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Doctors should offer a daily HIV prevention pill to healthy people who are at high risk of getting infected with the virus, an influential health care panel recommended Tuesday. The new guidelines aim to help cut the nearly 40,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. each year. Screening people for the HIV virus also is critical. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reiterated its long-standing advice that everyone ages 15 to 65 — and anyone who's pregnant — should be regularly screened, a step to early, life-saving treatment. (6/11)

There's lots of evidence that preexposure prophylaxis — also known as PrEP — is effective. The Food and Drug Administration-approved pill Truvada contains two antiretroviral medicines (tenofovir and emtricitabine). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites evidence that PrEP can reduce the risk of HIV infection by up to 92% in people who are at high risk and who take the drug consistently. The CDC recommended PrEP several years ago and calls it "a powerful HIV prevention tool," but so far uptake of PrEP has been slow. (Aubrey, 6/11)

AIDS prevention groups said the new recommendation should dramatically widen the availability of PrEP. “Making PrEP available without cost-sharing eliminates a major barrier to this landmark HIV prevention tool,” said Michael Ruppal, executive director of The AIDS Institute. “At a time when out-of-pocket costs are rising for patients as they seek access to medications, this recommendation is a win both for patients and public health.” (Weixel, 6/11)