HIV ‘Treatment as Prevention’ Agenda Can’t Effectively Move Forward Without a Major Focus on Human Rights

The following was written by Dr. Julio Montaner during the AIDS 2012 Conference.

Over the next week, world leaders, delegates and community advocates from around the world will meet in Washington D.C. for the XIX International AIDS Conference. There, they’ll define and create a roadmap that will determine the direction of the global AIDS response over the next two years. We know that the strategy of Treatment as Prevention (TasP) will play a key role in conference discussions – with over 8 million people around the world now accessing HIV treatment, there’s no question that the rapid expansion of treatment coverage can play a critical role in further decreasing morbidity and mortality, as well as in markedly curbing the spread of HIV.

How? Well, while a vaccine and a cure remain elusive, HIV treatment plays an essential role in reducing AIDS incidence and HIV and AIDS related deaths. Given that treatment markedly decreases HIV presence in biological fluids, it also lowers the likelihood of HIV transmission. This means that for people living with HIV, HIV treatments stop the virus from eroding their immune system and stop disease progression to AIDS, therefore extending their life expectancy, and decreasing the likelihood of HIV transmission.

Since 1996 in British Columbia, we have been able to carefully document the impact of progressive expansions of HIV treatment coverage. Our experience serves as a witness of the power of TasP in preventing morbidity, mortality and transmission. In brief, we have found that by expanding access to HIV testing and treatment we have driven new AIDS diagnoses to a record low, currently over 85% lower than in 1996. Similarly, all cause mortality among people living with HIV has decreased by over 90% over the same period. And, new HIV diagnoses have also gone down by over 60%. In the early 90’s we used to have about 900 new HIV cases diagnosed every year. Since then the numbers have decreased steadily until in 2011, when we documented less than 300 new HIV cases diagnosed, despite expanded HIV testing efforts and increasing rates of other STIs.

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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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