The National Institute of Health announced yesterday that current anti-retroviral medications have been shown to cut the spread of HIV infections by 96 percent. The results of the most recent HIV medication study confirm those found several years ago by the Swiss High Court and signify a potential breakthrough in handling of the deadly virus moving forward.
The new study followed 1,763 couples located in 13 different areas throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas. All couples in the study were sero-discordant, meaning that one partner was HIV-positive and the other was HIV-negative. Half of the HIV-positive participants were treated with the anti-retroviral medications immediately, while the other half received treatments only after their blood work showed damage to the immune system. Among those who received immediate treatment, infection rates fell by 96 percent.
While the study was originally intended to span ten years (2005-2015), researchers cut the study short by four years in order to act more quickly upon these dramatic results. Moving forward, such data is likely to fuel the CDC’s push for a system known as ‘test and treat,’ wherein health workers will test individuals in high-prevalence areas and immediately start all HIV-positive patients on anti-retroviral medication.
However, there are some who oppose the speedy implementation of such testing systems due to uncertainty concerning the as-yet unknown long-term effects of the medications. There are no studies thus far to indicate how a life-long dependence on the anti-retroviral may impact overall health; but as Executive Director of the Joint United Nationa Program on HIV/AIDS Michael Sidibe argued, “the science is strong” in its support of HIV prevention –“so strong that we must use it.”
