Mapping Pathways is a multi-national project to develop and nurture a research-driven, community-led global understanding of the emerging evidence base around the adoption of antiretroviral-based prevention strategies to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The evidence base is more than results from clinical trials - it must include stakeholder and community perspectives as well.

01 August 2012

The Value Of HIV Treatment In Couples

via NPR, by Richard Knox


Dr. Lisa Sterman holds Truvada pills at her office in San Francisco. The drug was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent infection in people at high risk of infection with HIV. The pill, already used to treat people with HIV, also helps reduce the odds they will spread the virus.Dr. Rochelle Walensky thinks the 19th International AIDS Conference will be remembered as the moment when the world began to mobilize to end the pandemic.

The Harvard researcher probably speaks for many of the 23,000 scientists, activists and policy mavens who came to the Washington conference. But they're going home with a big question on their minds: Can the world afford it?

Walensky and her colleagues provided the beginning of an answer with a presentation on the final day of the conference. They looked at the cost implications of expanding anti-retroviral treatment to all HIV-positive people in couples where one partner is not infected.

"Is it worth paying for? The answer is yes, it's very cost-effective," Walensky told Shots. At least that's the case in South Africa and India, which the researchers chose for their analysis, and for the limited situation of these so-called discordant couples.

Read the rest.


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