Immediate initiation of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) on diagnosis with HIV produces a 96% reduction in transmission to a non-infected partner. This is the remarkable finding of a large, multi-national, randomized clinical trial, begun in April 2005 by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), and enrolling 1,760 HIV sero-discordant couples at 13 sites across Africa, Asia […]
Category: HIV Epidemiology
HAART and mortality in China
A recent study published in the Lancet seeks to give a statistical picture of HAART coverage in China and its impact on mortality from 2002 to 2009. It is based on a correlation of data from the Chinese national epidemiological database, which records positive HIV results, and a “treatment” database. HIV affects an estimated 740,000 […]
The potential of couple-based HIV prevention in Africa
A recent cross-sectional study of 1,542 HIV infected people in Soweto, S. Africa, correlates certain sexual risk behaviours against a number of characteristics, including the self-reported HIV status of the partner. Given most risk behaviours by HIV infected people in this area have been reported to be in the context of long-term (heterosexual) relations, the […]