Results From New Trial Reveals HIV Treatment Prevents HIV Transmission
Filed under: Patrick, Politics & Issues, Random Reads
Author: Patrick
Date: May 12, 2011
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The United States National Institutes of Health announced today that the results of a new study shows that if an HIV Positive person adheres to an effective antiretroviral therapy regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by an astounding 96%.
The study (known as HPTN 052) was done by the HIV Prevention Trials Network where they enrolled over 1,700 sero-discordant couples (meaning one person who is HIV Positive and the other is HIV Negative) from all over the world, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US. Only people with HIV with a CD4 cell count ranging between 350 – 550 were used in this study, as they are not currently eligible for treatment own health according to the latest WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines. The success of the study was so successful, it was stopped almost four years ahead of schedule. Only people living with HIV with a CD4 cell count of between 350 and 550 (thus not eligible for treatment for their own health according to latest WHO guidelines) were enrolled in the study.
Dr. Myron Cohen, HPTN 052 Principal Investigator & Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains:
“This is excellent news. The study was designed to evaluate the benefit to the sexual partner as well as the benefit to the HIV-infected person. This is the first randomized clinical trial to definitively indicate that an HIV-infected individual can reduce sexual transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner by beginning antiretroviral therapy sooner. HPTN recognizes the significant contribution that this study’s participants have made to furthering the progress in HIV treatment and prevention. We are very grateful for their participation.”
This is a huge breakthrough because not only will it reduce the risk of transmission through sex (which accounts for 80% of all new infections), encourage people to get tested and be open & honest with their sexual partner, and reduce the stigma associated HIV.
Did you know that it is estimated that 33 million people in the world are living with HIV, but it’s also estimated that only about half of them know they have it?
Click here to read the full press release that was released today on this new study.
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HotPoz
May 12th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Should be no surprise – science is just proving pre-existing anecdotal evidence that the LGBT community has failed to teach. Dr Julio Montaner in Vancouver previously published similar results on the benefits of ARV treatment for the community as a whole and already received international awards for his work. There have already been studies saying that medically-treated HIV+ people should be considered “uninfectious”; but those results were basically ridiculed. Instead HIV stigma appears to be as strong as it ever was because of ignorance and continuing fear (so thank you for posting this news).
Serodiscordant partners have been around for a relatively long time now. As a HIV+ man, I’ve been in a few relationships with HIV- guys since the ’90s, no problem, no transmission, and good sex. I just make sure I take my meds so I maintain an undetectable viral load status. I’m not constantly worried about my health, or dying any sooner than anyone who’s not poz. The HIV scenario has improved greatly since 1996; times have changed.
I look forward to the day – hope it’s sooner than later! – when the HIV epidemic is a thing of the past because people get tested regularly, get treated if necessary and don’t see taking meds and being poz as a shameful curse, when they don’t “pretend” to be HIV- because they don’t ever get tested for fear of knowing and fear of stigma (sadly, they’re the most common source for the current transmissions), when vaccines arrive of course, and the general reply to telling someone you’re poz is “meh, whatever, let’s fuck”.
Lytt86
May 12th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Great article Patrick. There is a lot of great research coming out of NC, both from UNC-Chapel Hill and from Duke. I actually applied to work for this particular study a while back but went instead with a smoking cessation study that was being done at Duke University. It was more along side my field of study, linguistics, and also geared towards the Latino community, so it seemed a better fit. Great work being done by Dr. Cohen and the Staff at UNCC though. Hoping for the day when the HIV threat is minor and we can find a definite cure.
rafael
May 12th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
a similar study was already done last year and published on lancet… in fact some conducts have been already established based on those results… the importance of this particular study its that confirm on a larger scale this results……