Do new HIV therapy guidelines go far enough?

The World Health Organization’s new recommendation that people with HIV begin treatment with antiretroviral drugs sooner rather than later doesn’t go far enough, according to a prominent immunologist at the University of California, San Francsico Medical Center.

On Sunday, the WHO changed its position on how long people should wait before they start taking ART, a trio of virus-fighting drugs known as the HIV cocktail. In 2010, the health experts said treatment should begin after the number of CD4 immune system cells dropped below 350 per cubic millimeter of blood. Now they say the threshold should be 500 cells per cubic mm of blood. The health agency estimated the change would increase the number of people eligible for ART from 9.7 million to 26 million and avert 3 million deaths by 2025, according to a statement.

Brad Balukjian
Los Angeles Times
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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below

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