Reuters examines challenges to implementing 'treatment as prevention,' other HIV prevention strategies in current economic climate

Sep 7 2012

In an "Insight" feature article, Reuters examines how new information on the prevention benefits of HIV treatment and other strategies, such as male circumcision, "could finally break the back of the AIDS epidemic." But, "[w]ith some recession-strapped donor countries already struggling to meet their current commitments for treatment and prevention programs, AIDS activists worry that money, and not science, could hold up progress," the news agency states. "'The benefits of early detection and treatment have never been more clear, but countries have never been more challenged to provide needed resources,' Kaiser Family Foundation [President and CEO] Drew Altman said in a statement," the news service writes. Reuters highlights the results of several studies, discusses the challenges of "treatment as prevention," and looks at the costs associated with implementing that and other strategies. "One hesitation is that the drugs work so well that people who take them can live basically a normal life, which means countries are on the hook for a lifetime of treatment," the news service writes, adding, "The challenge is trying to sell the prevention aspect of treatment as cost-effective." Reuters notes, "HIV/AIDS experts will test these efforts -- along with less costly approaches, such as counseling, condom use and circumcision -- in as many as 50 studies globally to see how well they work in real-world settings" (Steenhuysen, 9/6).