[Pharm-policy] Treatments low spread of AIDS

[James Love]

This story seems to be important evidence that there should be more
emphasis on treatment for HIV/AIDS in Africa
Jamie


http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/013100hth-aids-virus.html


         By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30 -- A study suggests that people with very low
levels of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, in their blood are
unlikely to spread the virus to others. 

The study was conducted in Africa but could have important implications
in the United States, where drug treatment has lowered virus levels for
many AIDS patients. 

Health experts speculate that AIDS treatments may have an additional
benefit -- slowing the epidemic by making infected people less likely to
pass on the virus. 

  [snip]

The new study looked at sexual transmission of H.I.V. in rural Uganda.
It was conducted by Dr. Thomas C. Quinn and others from Johns Hopkins
University and presented today at the Seventh Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections. 

The doctors followed 415 heterosexual couples in which one partner was
infected with H.I.V. and one was not. Despite receiving free condoms,
the couples rarely used them. During 30 months of follow up, 90 people
in the study caught the virus. 

The study found that the higher the level of H.I.V. in the infected
person's blood, the higher the risk of passing on the virus through sex. 

Counting the number of individual viruses in a milliliter of blood, the
study found that someone with 200,000 viruses per milliliter was two and
a half times more likely to spread H.I.V. than someone with 2,000
viruses per milliliter. 

But the researchers found no transmission of virus by infected people
who carried less than 1,500 viruses per milliliter of blood, even if the
people had sex without condoms. 

Because of the high expense, AIDS treatment is rare in Africa. 


  [snip]

-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367        | http://www.cptech.org
Washington, DC 20036  | mailto:love@cptech.org
Voice 1.202.387.8030  | fax 1.202.387.8030