How is HIV treatment as prevention currently being used?
Across the world HIV-positive pregnant women take antiretroviral drugs to reduce the chances of transmitting HIV to their baby. Without intervention there is a 20-45 percent chance that a baby born to an HIV-infected mother will become infected.1 However, treatment for the mother during pregnancy significantly reduces this risk. UNAIDS estimate that between 1996 and 2008, 200,000 new HIV infections have been averted through preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) initiatives, which include the provision of prophylactic ARVs.2
In some countries if a person has been exposed to HIV they are offered a short course of antiretroviral drugs to reduce their chances of becoming infected with the virus. This is called post exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, and is used in both occupational and non-occupational settings. Health care workers are offered the treatment if they have received a needlestick injury or have been exposed to HIV through their work. There is no conclusive evidence to show that PEP works, but a combination of studies have suggested that it may be effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection.3 4 5
One idea of treatment as prevention that is currently being researched is pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP involves providing people who are not infected with HIV with antiretroviral drugs before possible exposure to the virus, to stop them from becoming infected.
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