London (INDEPENDENT): A daily tablet that offers up to a 90 per cent reduction in the risk of contracting HIV could soon be available on the NHS, in what is being described as the most significant breakthrough in the battle against the virus in a generation. A landmark trial in England is to be dramatically sped up after it was found that taking a single dose of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Truvada provided unprecedented levels of protection for those most at risk of infection.
 Campaigners have urged the NHS to act urgently to ensure the medication – which has been approved for use in the United States since 2012 - is offered to the most vulnerable groups as soon as possible. It comes amid mounting concern over new figures which reveal that the number of gay and bisexual men being diagnosed with HIV in 2013 had reached its highest-ever level, with no decrease in the rate of infection for nearly a decade. Researchers prescribed Truvada, an anti-retroviral used to treat HIV, to 407 men taking part in the study in Brighton, London, York, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. A further 138 men who had been waiting to start the course are now to be offered the drug immediately. Dr Sheena McCormack of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, who is leading the PROUD study, said an interim analysis of the data showed it could lead to a major reduction in the number of new infections. “The exciting opportunity this offers is to make the biggest dent in the epidemic of all time. It will be better than treatment as prevention,” she said. It is hoped the trial could be rolled out nationally from as early as 2017. The drug was offered alongside HIV testing, condoms and other safe sex support to gay and bisexual men and transgender women who had recently had unprotected sex.