The end of HIV?

I don't know why we need to have single days when we're supposed to think about stuff we probably should be thinking about regularly (e.g., why do we have National Pickle Week when pickles matter all the time?) but for what it's worth, today is World AIDS Day.The One Campaign (Bono's charity) says there's good news: we're at a "tipping point" in that the number of people newly receiving HIV treatment now exceeds the number of new infections. Furthermore, the global incidence of HIV has fallen by 40% since 2001. This is no doubt for a combination of reasons, including better awareness and changes in people's behavior, but one reason is that more people are in treatment. People who take their medications regularly and have suppressed viral loads are much less infectious, maybe even not at all.But, I don't think this is really a tipping point. There are several problems with that rather glib assertion. The first is that just because people are enrolled in treatment and have a prescription doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to remain in treatment, and remain adherent to their medications. It is definitely not the case that the number of people with unsuppressed HIV viral loads is decreasing. The number of people enrolled in treatment would need to greatly exceed new infections, and adherence to treatment would need to be better, in order for that to happen.The second problem is that the expansion of treatment may not be sustainable. The wealthy countries are reducing th...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs