A recent discovery might help people with HIV. A combination of universal voluntary HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART) following diagnosis of HIV infection could reduce the HIV cases in a severe generalized epidemic by 95 percent in 10 years. The data comes from a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The researchers used computer modeling to examine the impact of testing all people aged 15 years and older for HIV every sear, starting the antiretroviral treatment immediately after they find a person infected. Data from South Africa was used as a test case for a generalized epidemic, and the model assumed all HIV transmission was heterosexual.

The WHO said that this approach “merits further mathematical modeling, research, and broad consultation,” and their study was published in an upcoming print issue of The Lancet and online. Another analyst, Professor Geoffrey P. Garnett of the Imperial College of London, says that this type of HIV control strategy might reflect public health at its best and its worst. The pills in the treatment have rescued tens of thousands of people from what was once certain death from AIDS, but researchers think it’s even more of a positive effect if they prevent the disease in high risk populations.

However, clinical trials are still underway in order to see whether the pills could preventively block the virus and protect people who are not yet infected by the virus. HIV has killed 25 million people and infected another 32 million since the 1980s. Unfortunately, the virus has eluded more than a decade of efforts to find a vaccine and, so far, there are no concrete results.

Now, two pills are being tested: one contains Tenofovir and the other includes Emtricitabine. These are effective in preventing the HIV virus from spreading through the body by lowering the HIV count in the blood semen and vaginal mucous.  In order to find out if HIV can be prevented by using pills, researchers tested 1,750 couples in the US, Brazil, Thailand, India and South Africa. In each couple, one partner is HIV positive and the other is healthy. Anyway, it’s a long way to go in the quest for the HIV cure.