As community viremia declined, so did the incidence of HIV infection among gay and bisexual men in a 6-year Australian study, researchers reported.
The findings, presented during CROI, provide “compelling evidence that treatment as prevention can achieve population-level ‘big picture’ public health goals around reducing new cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men,” Denton Callander, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute in Sydney and research scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told Healio.
“We’ve known for some time now that HIV treatment can prevent onward transmission of the virus at an individual level,” Callander said. “The question, however, is if this strategy can achieve ‘big picture’ public health goals – namely, to reduce new HIV infections. This study was created to try to answer that question by looking specifically at the relationship over time between ‘community viremia’ and new diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men, the population most affected by HIV in Australia and many other parts of the world.”