When is it appropriate to use HIV treatment अस prevention?

When is it appropriate to use HIV treatment as prevention?

Treatment as prevention initiatives should be assessed like other methods of HIV prevention: there needs to be evidence to suggest that it will be highly effective; the resources in place to carry out the programme; enough funding to support the programme; and a clearly identified target population. Finally, and perhaps most fundamentally, the rights of the individual need to take precedence. Antiretroviral treatment can cause serious side effects and can lead to drug resistance if not taken exactly as prescribed. Therefore an HIV positive person has the right to decide whether or not to take the treatment by weighing up the potential disadvantages and benefits for their own health.

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

Antiretroviral drugs

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.