Mary Dutki
Monday, 6 September 2010

A plan to eliminate HIV and AIDS using antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) within the next 30 years has been unveiled by scientists from the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis (SACEMA).
The plan which was unveiled last month in San Diego, California at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science proposes the aggressive use of blanket HIV testing followed with ARVs for all individuals testing positive for HIV.
With 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2008, 2.7 million new HIV infections and 2 million deaths due to AIDS within the same year, scientists are turning their focus on antiretroviral therapy which they consider to be the only real success so far in HIV prevention. Antiretroviral therapy lowers the amount of the HIV virus in the blood to levels that render HIV positive individuals virtually non-infectious.
The scientists argue that antiretroviral treatment has so far been given too late in the course of many individuals’ lives and thus treatment has not helped in reducing transmission rates.
This time however they are suggesting early testing and treatment, targeting the most sexually active | More »