The B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is taking its expertise to rural U.S.A.
Joining forces with the Indiana University School of Medicine, the centre is helping respond to a highly concentrated HIV epidemic driven by the injection of prescription opioids in Austin, Indiana.
With an estimated population of 4,200, Austin is located in the state’s Scott County. Approximately 10 percent of its population injects opioids on a daily basis. More than 184 new HIV cases have been identified since December 2015-the worst outbreak in state history.
The joint effort allows the BC-Cfe to apply its HIV Treatment as Prevention model to the rural setting.
Although neither a cure nor a vaccine for HIV/ AIDS exists, several advances in HIV treatment have been achieved over the past two decades. Most significant among them was the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a combination of antiretroviral drugs that can fully suppress HIV replication. It therefore renders the number of viral copies present in a patient’s blood undetectable.
Shortly after the initial roll out of HAART in 1996, data from Taiwan and British Columbia suggested that new HIV diagnoses had unexpectedly decreased. Most intriguingly, in British Columbia, the effect of HAART on new cases was apparent despite a steady rise in syphilis rates. The data suggested that HAART could be much more effective in reducing HIV transmission than previously suspected.