Two new studies confirmed everything being said for years about the spread of HIV.
The first was part of a six-year study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Thorough as hell, there were over 3,400 heterosexual HIV-discordant couples in which one member had HIV studied. All couples came from one of seven African countries (Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia).
They found amazing results in couples that were counseled and treated with antiretroviral therapy.
ScienceDaily states:
“These results are an important finding in the search for effective HIV prevention strategies and the strongest evidence to date that ART (anti-remight decrease HIV transmission risk,” said Dr. Connie Celum, professor of medicine and global health at the University of Washington and the senior author of the paper.
Lead study author, Dr. Deborah Donnell, a biostatistician with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said “the one transmission indicated that HIV serodiscordant couples should maintain safer-sex practices even when HIV-positive partners are on treatment.”
The proportion of couples who reported having unprotected sex decreased over time, explained the authors. Couples received frequent counseling on HIV risk reduction.
Though the rate of new HIV infections has been declining worldwide, an estimated 7,400 people a day are being infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS.
The second study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that many with HIV start to care when it’s too late.
Study author Richard Moore, MD said:
“The public health implications of our findings are clear: Delayed diagnosis reduces survival, and individuals enter into HIV care with lower CD4 counts than the guidelines for antiretroviral therapy initiation.”
“A delay in presentation for treatment not only increases the chance of clinical disease progression but also increases the risk of ongoing transmission.”
Find out more here.
