HIV clinicians will deliberate on how to put evidence into policy and action.
This year marks the 30th year of India’s fight against AIDS, and for the first time, the world has obtained evidence backing antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment to those testing positive for HIV, regardless of CD4. WHO has accordingly revised its guidelines.
The official 8th national conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2015) will open in Mumbai this week. It will be held from October 30 to November 1, 2015. HIV clinicians from several medical faculties will deliberate on how to put the evidence into policy and action.
Ishwar Gilada, president of AIDS Society of India (ASI) said, “India has come a long way in its fight against AIDS. The public HIV programme is providing life-saving ART to over 800,000 people living with HIV. However, in light of new strong evidence to ‘treat all’ regardless of CD4 count, India has to take evidence into account and further fortify its programmatic approaches. ‘Test and Treat’ strategy, Treatment as Prevention (TasP) and Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) for all, Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) – also for the victims of sexual assaults, are some of the evidence-backed approaches that should not be delayed so as to maximise public health outcomes.”