The True End of AIDS

published on February 20, 2015 in America's AIDS MAgazine

Lately, we have been hearing a lot about the end of AIDS. Not by a cure but by targeted prevention and treatment measures to reduce the spread of HIV, including treatment as prevention (TasP) and the reduction of community viral load, the countdown to zero (eliminating new mother-to-child transmissions), the use of PrEP, etc.

Despite optimistic catch phrases, cheery public service announcements, high-level political rhetoric, and articles announcing “the end of AIDS,” the cold hard statistics tell a different story. Yes, we have had some hard-earned victories in reducing new infections that we should feel happy and accomplished about, but, particularly here in the U.S., reality in the form of a CDC report is screaming “this is not the end of AIDS.”

Despite the effectiveness of third-generation antiretrovirals (ARVs) in reducing HIV viral loads to undetectable levels, new statistics show disappointing results in U.S. HIV patients. A recent CDC report found that only three in every ten Americans living with HIV had an undetectable viral load in 2011. Although disparaging, it should be noted that some progress has been made nationwide, as 2009 statistics found twenty-six percent to be undetectable, four percent less than in 2011.

The report found that of the 1.2 million people presently living with HIV:

• Twenty percent did not know they are infected
• 840,000 were not consistently taking ARVs.
• Sixty-six percent were not in regular care
• Ten percent were unable to maintain an undetectable viral load despite being on ARVs
• Four percent were receiving care from a physician but were not on ARVs

Men who have sex with men account for a large percentage of those in the U.S. living with HIV, but an earlier CDC report found that of gay men living with HIV, only fifty-one percent were receiving care and only forty-nine percent were on antiretroviral treatment.

View the full article >>

Tags:

Treatment as Prevention®

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Search form

The True End of AIDS

Search form