A promising new vaginal gel that appears to protect women from contracting HIV may be put to use in South Africa, even before regulators approve it there, the country's health minister says.

Results from a study of the gel, containing Gilead's antiretroviral drug tenofovir, were announced at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where attendees were excited by the gel's potential as an effective new weapon in the fight against AIDS, which has ravaged southern Africa.

When applied before and after sex, the experimental microbicidal gel cut women's chances of contracting HIV by 39 percent overall, and by 50 percent after a full year of use. The gel also reduced women's chances of getting genital herpes by 51 percent.

“Once confirmed and implemented, Tenofovir gel has the potential to alter the course of the HIV epidemic,” says Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa.

Given that the study, called CAPRISA 004, found no substantial safety concerns and no Tenofovir resistance, Karim estimates the gel could eventually prevent an estimated 1.3 million new HIV infections and more than 800,000 deaths over the next 20 years in South Africa alone.

A new, expanded trial for the gel is now being planned. Meanwhile, Anthony Fauci, of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Reuters that countries with the greatest need should be able to move forward with using new HIV/AIDS medicines without having to wait for regulators.