Leveraging early HIV diagnosis and treatment in Thailand to conduct HIV cure research.

Leveraging early HIV diagnosis and treatment in Thailand to conduct HIV cure research. AIDS Res Ther. 2019 Sep 06;16(1):25 Authors: Muccini C, Crowell TA, Kroon E, Sacdalan C, Ramautarsing R, Seekaew P, Phanuphak P, Ananworanich J, Colby DJ, Phanuphak N Abstract Thailand has the highest prevalence of HIV among countries in Asia but has also been a pioneer in HIV prevention and treatment efforts in the region, reducing the incidence of new infections significantly over the last two decades. Building upon this remarkable history, Thailand has set an ambitious goal to stop the AIDS epidemic in the country by 2030. A key component of the strategy to achieve this goal includes scale-up of HIV screening programs to facilitate early HIV diagnosis and investment in mechanisms to support immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Initiation of ART during early or acute HIV infection not only reduces viremia, thereby halting onward transmission of HIV, but also may facilitate HIV remission by reducing the size of the latent HIV reservoir and preserving immune function. In Thailand, many efforts have been made to reduce the time from HIV infection to diagnosis and from diagnosis to treatment, especially among men who have sex with men and transgender women. Successfully identifying and initiating ART in individuals with acute HIV infection has been leveraged to conduct groundbreaking studies of novel strategies to achieve HIV remissi...
Source: AIDS Research and Therapy - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: AIDS Res Ther Source Type: research