British Columbia's 'treatment-as-prevention strategy' helping to reduce HIV/AIDS cases, deaths

Jan 6 2012

"New HIV cases and AIDS deaths are both going steadily down in British Columbia, according to data released last week," the New York Times reports. Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said, "We're particularly pleased to see that our treatment-as-prevention strategy has taken off big-time," the newspaper notes, adding that the strategy, which aggressively identifies and treats people with HIV, "lowers by 96 percent the chances that they will infect others." The New York Times writes, "Montaner said he is frustrated that rich countries will not donate enough money to roll out the strategy in poor countries with huge HIV epidemics" (McNeil, 1/2).