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.

15 August 2012

Newly infected individuals sustaining HIV epidemic in Geneva

via aidsmap, by Michael Carter

Individuals with recent HIV infection are sustaining the epidemic, a Swiss study published in the online edition of AIDS suggest. The investigators believe that their results further support the use of antiretroviral therapy as prevention, but also show that its impact on the epidemic will be blunted because of the high number of transmissions which can be attributed to individuals who have been recently infected with HIV and who are not yet taking treatment.

Phylogenetic analysis showed that only a handful of infections in individual diagnosed between 2008 and 2010 could be attributed to patients diagnosed before 2000. Patients with longer-term HIV infection were the group most likely to be taking antiretroviral therapy and to have an undetectable viral load.

“Recent HIV infections were a significant source of HIV spread,” comment the authors. “By contrast, HIV individuals diagnosed before 2000 were rarely the source of new infections before 2008.”

It is now widely accepted that patients who are taking HIV therapy that suppresses their viral load to undetectable levels are highly unlikely to transmit the virus to their sex partners.

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