Monday, May 15, 2017

Ending HIV is possible in the USA



New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has revealed that within the next decade there may be dramatic steps towards ending the HIV epidemic in the USA. It has been said that with a good commitment, a path exists to end domestic HIV infection via the achievement of critical milestones, which specifically include decrease of annual new infections to 21,000 by 2020 and to 12,000 by 2025. Study co-author David Holtgrave, PhD, says these ambitious targets could be achieved with an intensified and sustained national commitment. Developments in antiretroviral therapy (ART), which are drugs that lower HIV transmission by decreasing the level of virus in the blood, means that HIV can now be a chronic disease which is manageable. 

This study has been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. There is an ambitious, but significant, pathway to lower U.S. HIV incidence below 12,000 new infections by 2025. This would bring HIV incidence below mortality in 2025, which would mark a transition toward actually ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It certainly is worth the effort to help end the threat of HIV/AIDS in the USA.