7 Healthcast: HIV pill

Angela Murray is one of the 33 million people living with HIV.

"I know how I got it, it was from unprotected sex, somebody I knew," Murray said.

Contracting HIV the way Angela says she did may soon be preventable.

Dr. J. Victor Garcia and a team of researchers in Texas found that drugs used to treat HIV patients might prevent the vaginal transmission of the virus that causes AIDS if taken before and after exposure.

"These would have the most dramatic effect in places where the incidents of HIV is high and therefore the risk of transmission is also higher," Dr. Garcia said.

Garcia tested humanized mice and says the Centers for Disease Control is now testing these drugs in humans.

"This could potentially prevent 3 million transmission events in a period of 10 years," Dr. Garcia said.

Angela says she can't change her past, but is encouraged that one day perhaps women won't have to walk a day in her shoes

"It's going to change a lot of situations and it gives people hope for the ones that aren't infected," Murray said.

Dr. Garcia says his next area of study will focus on preventing HIV transmission among men. The CDC estimates that there are about a million people living with HIV in this country.

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