Monday, 19th October 2015
Over the past few years, it has become more and more clear that effective HIV treatment reduces viral load and onward transmission. Treatment of the individual has a benefit for the wider population.
But legitimate questions have been raised about whether individuals should take medical treatment for the benefit of others. It was not proven that early HIV treatment, at a high CD4 cell count, had any benefit for the individual who has to swallow the pills each day.
Those concerns have been put to rest by the results of START, a large, well-conducted randomised trial. It shows that early HIV treatment significantly lowers the risk of developing AIDS, other serious illnesses unrelated to AIDS, and death. People who don’t start treatment until their CD4 cell count had fallen below 350 cells/mm3 have poorer outcomes. As a result UK guidelines are likely to soon change so that HIV treatment is recommended to all people living with HIV, regardless of their CD4 cell count.
We can now be confident that early HIV treatment benefits both the individual and the wider population.
Information produced by NAM for HIV Prevention England
Trade Sexual Health is providing 4th Generation HIV Point of Care Testing in the office clinic every Monday 12 -6pm. Kwik Prick, 20 minutes for the results to show.
