Health experts advocating the wider availability of a pre-exposure HIV drug say it could halve Australia's transmission rate.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), an antiretroviral pill taken daily by people who are HIV negative, is not listed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
It can now only be imported for personal use or prescribed by a small number of GPs - but its wider availability could have a remarkable impact, research shows.
A NSW study used statistics on transmission rates, the Australian population and the number of gay men eligible to use PrEP.
"Basically, what it shows is that PrEP is a very effective HIV-prevention tool," the University of NSW's Kirby Institute researcher Dr Iryna Zablotska-Manos told AAP.
"In the first year of taking the medication, if it is accessible to high-risk gay and homosexually identifying men, about 50 per cent of the infections in this population could be averted."
It could be another year before the drug is available through Medicare because of regulatory procedures, possibly leading to preventable transmissions, the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine said.
"We have a body of research demonstrating the feasibility of providing PrEP in Australia," said the society's president, Associate Professor Mark Boyd.
"The results tell us that the sooner we can make this medication available to Australians at risk of HIV, the better."
PrEP should be viewed not as a drastic preventative action but "another way of taking care of yourself", said Australian Federation of Aids Organisations president Dr Bridget Haire.
"We don't expect all women of child-bearing age to use condoms if they don't want to be pregnant," Dr Haire told AAP.
"We expect them to use whatever method is the safest and most convenient for them as organised with their doctor. We need those kinds of options around HIV."
The topic is expected to be raised at the Australian HIV Conference in Brisbane, which begins on Wednesday.
The number of Australians contracting HIV has stabilised in the past three years, according to a report released this week by the Kirby Institute.
There were 1081 new cases in 2014, with gay men accounting for 70 per cent.
PrEP's side effects can include gastrointestinal issues or, in serious cases, kidney and bone density problems, but Dr Haire said one of its advantages is a limited interference with other medication.
Condoms will continue to be a first-line HIV prevention technique, she said.
