Thirty years on, AIDS fight may shift to treatment focus

Thirty years on, AIDS fight may shift totreatment focus fter 30 years of AIDS preventionefforts, global leaders may now need to shift their focus tospending more on drugs used to treat the disease as newdata show this may also be the best way to prevent the virusfrom spreading.The U.N. General Assembly will take up the issue next weekas it assesses progress in fighting the disease — firstreported on June 5, 1981 — that has infected more than 60million people and claimed nearly 30 million lives.Guiding the meeting is groundbreaking new data that showsearly treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV,can cut its transmission to a sexual partner by 96 percent ."There had been for a long time this artificial dichotomy orartificial tension between treatment versus prevention. Now itis very clear that treatment is prevention and treatment is animportant part of a multifaceted combination strategy," Dr.Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases division of the National Institutes ofHealth (NIH), told Reuters.Fauci, who has made AIDS research his life's work, has a bigrole to play in the discussion of the NIH-funded study madepublic on May 12.Story: Controversial AIDS cure spurs hope"A month ago, we didn't have that data. People were stillarguing. 'Well, we are not so sure if you treat people you arereally going to prevent infection,"' Fauci said. "The policymakers need to sit down and say, 'Now that we know this, isthis going to be enough incentive to change around ourpolicy?"'That could mean redirecting, or adding to, global spendingon fighting AIDS, particularly how much is spent on educationor other research versus antiretroviral drugs that allowpatients to live with the suppressed disease for many years.In 2010, nearly $16 billion was spent on HIV response in lowand middle-income countries, according to the U.N. Programon HIV/AIDS.Report: New AIDS infections dropped since 2001UNAIDS says at least $22 billion will be needed to combatthe disease by 2015, helping avert 12 million new infectionsand 7.4 million more deaths in the next decade.Globally, the number of people living with HIV rose to 34million by the end of 2010, from 33.3 million a year earlier,according to figures issued by UNAIDS Friday. There were26.2 million in 1999.As many as 6.6 million people were receiving antiretroviraltherapy in low- and middle-income countries at the end of2010, a nearly 22-fold increase since 2001, according to thereport.Graying of AIDS: Older Americans at risk for new HIVinfectionA record 1.4 million people started lifesaving treatment in2010, more than any year before, according to the report.And at least 420,000 children were receiving antiretroviraltherapy at the end of 2010, a more than 50 percent increasesince 2008, when 275 000 children were on treatment.But in poorer countries, a majority of eligible patients stillwere not receiving antiretroviral treatment, according toUNAIDS."It is encouraging to see that treatment is expanding in poorcountries - but the pace has to be picked up if the worldwants to get ahead of the wave of new infections and makeuse of the latest science that HIV treatment is also HIVprevention," Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer of Medecins SansFrontieres, said in a statement."World leaders meeting at the U.N. AIDS summit next weekhave the best opportunity to translate the latest science intopolicies that could break the back of the HIV epidemic. Thisis not the time for a mediocre response that leaves the jobonly half done."Fauci says he has already discussed this with policymakersand may make public his views on needed policy changes atthe International AIDS Society meeting in Rome.Story: Starting HIV meds quickly helps protects partner"I don't think it's going to be one-size-fits all," Fauci said ofthe policy approach. "There is going to be certainly adifference between how things are looked at in thedeveloping world and the developed world. And within thedeveloped world, I think it will be a country-by-countryissue."UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe noted that AIDSremained "a metaphor for inequality" as the vast majority ofpatients live in Africa, where every year nearly 400,000babies are born with HIV.Thirty years on, AIDS fight may shift to treatment focus.He said countries need to start looking at innovative financingto make sure drugs are not just for the rich market."We need shared responsibility. Every country, rich or poor,must put in its fair share, based on GDP and burden ofdisease. No country can do it alone -- donors or developingcountries," he told a United Nations press conference Friday.Thirty years on, AIDS fight may shift totreatment focus