Shots - Health News Fri February 22, 2013 The Whole Community
Gets A Health Boost From HIV Treatment Originally published on
Fri February 22, 2013 9:51 am Over the past few decades, one of
the most perplexing questions in global health is how to stop
HIV. There have been campaigns involving condoms, abstinence and
even the circumcision of all men younger than 46. But one
relatively new strategy, called treatment as prevention, is
causing quite a buzz. The idea is to give all HIV-positive
people antiretroviral drugs to drive down the levels of virus in
their systems so they no longer pose a threat of transmitting
the disease. Sounds good in theory, but how well does it play
out in the slums of Nairobi or the townships of Johannesburg?
Two studies published in the journal Science find that, in
places where HIV drugs are widely available, the risk for new
HIV infections drops dramatically and overall life expectancy
increases by more than a decade. In other words, treatment as
prevention isn't just a buzz word f