New Strategy Could Dramatically Slow The Spread Of HIV

Source: Science daily

Giving a daily antiretroviral pill to people to prevent HIV could profoundly slow the spread of the infection in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is a full-blown epidemic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers report.

Published by the Public Library of Science in the Sept. 19 issue of PLoS One, the findings are based on a mathematical model developed by the researchers to predict the public-health impact of pre-exposure chemoprophylaxis (PrEP) -- an HIV prevention strategy that uses antiretroviral drugs, currently given in combination to treat HIV-positive individuals, to stop the infection from occurring in the first place.

Through the model, the research team predicts that PrEP, targeted to those at highest behavioral risk, could have a major impact on public health, potentially preventing 3.2 million cases of HIV in southern sub-Saharan Africa alone in 10 years. Sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS global epidemic, contains almost 63 percent of the world's HIV-infected population, totaling about 22.4 million adults.

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The article plublished in PLoS One is available here