HIV treatment today makes it nearly impossible to pass on the virus even during sex. Such universal treatment would put the world well on the way to eradicating HIV. I note abstinence as a strategy hasn't worked.
Numerous recent studies have shown that people taking so-called triple therapy every day not only live longer, but also have so little circulating virus that they are highly unlikely to infect others even through unprotected sex. Studies using Truvada, a two-drug combination taken preventively, have shown that those taking the drugs every day have near-total protection against infection.
The recommendations underscored the difference in options available to patients in industrialized countries and those in the developing world, and public health advocates acknowledged that it was unclear where the money would come from to turn the new guidelines into reality. Donor contributions for AIDS have been essentially flat since 2009. Although the W.H.O. issues guidelines, each country sets its own policy. Inevitably, when treatment starts depends on how many citizens the country’s health budget can afford to treat. Fifteen million people are on treatment now, fewer than half of the 37 million people infected worldwide.
But advocates noted that the situation has appeared hopeless before; a generation ago, the idea of treating anyone in poor countries with $15,000 medications looked impossible. Now, with generic drugs and the generosity of wealthy nations, the number of people getting treatment in Africa, Asia and Latin America has been rising by about a million a year.
The new guidelines represent an acknowledgment that no vaccine is on the horizon, and that the long-touted “ABC” strategy — abstain, be faithful, use a condom — has not worked.
And yet there is hope the epidemic can be ended, or at least greatly shrunken, with tools now at hand. NY Times
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