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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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