In clinical trials, the early initiation of HIV treatment (ART) stabilizes the immune system and significantly reduces the risk of developing AIDS-related infections and cancers. This benefit of ART is so profound that researchers increasingly expect that many ART users will live into their senior years.
Key to reaping the benefit of ART is achieving an undetectable level of HIV in the blood (viral load) and maintaining it through daily use of ART and regular checkups and laboratory monitoring. Clinical trials have found that ART users with undetectable viral loads do not pass on HIV to their sexual partners.
Harm reduction in brief
Viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B and C can be spread through the re-use of contaminated equipment when injecting drugs. Harm reduction is a term that refers to different ways to help reduce and/or alleviate the harm associated with substance use. A few examples of harm reduction activities include the following:
- provision of sterile syringes and needles
- psychosocial support
- opioid substitution therapy – prescribed medicines, such as methadone, buprenorphine and in some cases pharmaceutical-grade heroin (diacetylmorphine)
- supervised injection sites
Compare and contrast
Researchers at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS along with other researchers in Vancouver have attempted to study the relative impact that ART, harm reduction or both can have on the spread of HIV. In their study, which is currently in press in the journal Lancet HIV, the harm reduction services consisted of the provision of sterile syringes/needles and the prescription of drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine. The researchers used health-related information collected in databases to develop computer simulations of the HIV epidemic in B.C. Researchers used the simulations to understand the effect of ART, harm reduction services or both on the province’s HIV epidemic.