Bending & Ending the HIV Epidemic: Are We on Track to Meet 90-90-90 Goals?

published on March 8, 2018 by KRISTI ROSA, in Contagion Live

Although the world has come a long way since HIV was first recognized, the goal of eradicating the virus once and for all has not yet been realized. Hope remains, however, as individuals in the health care sector continue to dedicate their efforts to at least achieving the 90-90-90 targets laid out by the United Nation’s Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which calls for the following by 2030: 90% of individuals to know their status; 90% of those diagnosed to be put on treatment; and 90% of those on treatment to become virally suppressed.
Whether or not this ambitious goal will be achieved remains to be seen. And the question remains: Are we on the fast-track to “bend and end” the HIV epidemic?
At the 25th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections Wednesday Plenary session, Helen Weiss, MSc, DPhil, director of the MRC Tropical Epidemiology Group, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, shared the current goals in the HIV research community and if we are actually on track to hit them.
“In terms of the ultimate goal, we want to increase life expectancy and quality of life in people living with HIV; to promote, protect, and fulfill human rights of the people affected by HIV; and to reduce the number of new infections to zero,” Dr. Weiss stressed.
There’s no denying the progress that has been made towards the ultimate goal. First, those living with HIV now have a longer life expectancy. Dr. Weiss illustrated this improvement using data from a graph comparing life expectancy in the 1990s versus recent years. The sharp decrease depicted in the 1990s has been undeniably reversed, “thanks to early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART),” she said.
Developments in ART initiation and treatment have come a long way since their launch. “A young person [who started] ART in 2010 has a 10-year increase in life expectancy compared with a young person who started in 1996,” she said.

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Bending & Ending the HIV Epidemic: Are We on Track to Meet 90-90-90 Goals?

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