Trials have shown that rates of HIV infection are reduced if people not infected with HIV take anti-retrovirals - known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). But adherence to a daily dose is a problem.
The focus of the 2016 International AIDS Conference has on access to necessary antiretrovirals, equity and making sure no-one is left behind. But there is a funding gap that needs to be addressed.
PrEP works by preventing susceptible cells becoming infected with HIV. Truvada blocks the HIV virus from making copies of itself.
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If the vaginal ring becomes available for commercial use it will become one of the tools in the HIV prevention toolbox for women alongside female condoms and daily pre-exposure prophylaxis.
The successful prevention of mother to child transmission programmes means nearly all HIV-infected pregnant women should get anti-retroviral treatment to protect their babies.
Joshua Wanyama/Africa Knows
South Africa’s programmes preventing HIV transmission from mothers to children have been hugely successful. But there are still gaps that need to be filled.
HIV services are not geared towards men even though they make up two-thirds of the HIV-related deaths globally.
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Although men make up two-thirds of HIV-related deaths, there are not enough services geared towards helping them.
Advances in HIV treatment have turned it into a chronic, but manageable, illness. In this photo: Artist Damien Hirst’s ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way,’ which shows antiretroviral drugs in a medicine cabinet, is seen as it is displayed at a gallery in New York, February 4 2008.
Chip East/Reuters
Thanks to treatment advances, people with HIV can and do live long and full lives. And that has led to a challenge that doctors and patients may not have imagined 35 years ago: the aging HIV patient.
South Africa’s successes in HIV treatment have been marred by challenges in improving HIV prevention methods.
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With nearly one-fifth of the globe’s HIV positive population, South Africa has the largest anti-retroviral program in the world. But HIV prevention still presents a big challenge for the country.
Telling people to use a condom won’t prevent HIV because some women can’t convince their partner to use them.
Mike Segar/Reuters
Used properly and consistently, condoms are the most effective, affordable, and low-tech way to prevent HIV. But unfortunately, condoms are not an easy option for everyone – particularly women.
Australians at risk of acquiring HIV have limited means to get the HIV prevention drug.
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New York’s achievements have provided a beacon of hope as well as a road map that has been successfully tailored to the needs of resource-poor settings throughout the world.
PrEP drugs to prevent people contracting HIV mustn’t disrupt existing sexual health strategies.
US First Lady Michelle Obama visits a centre in Botswana that supports young people affected by HIV. Botswana has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.
Charles Dharapak/Reuters
Indonesia’s war on drugs aims to protect the country’s young generation from an alleged “national drug emergency.” But the government’s coercive approach is harming the people it wishes to protect.
Early HIV treatment is a win-win strategy.
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Starting HIV treatment early, before immune damage occurs, brings real clinical benefits, a new study has shown.
Since the start of the new millennium, South Africa has had to contend with an HIV epidemic and a set of confused policies to address it.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
South Africa’s maternal mortality rate rose dramatically after 1998, almost doubling to 302 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2009.
Needle exchanges don’t put more syringes on the streets. In this photo a clean syringes chart is shown at the Aids Center of Queens County needle exchange outreach center in New York in 2006.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity