Chicago In a study that supports the widely used drugs to help control the AIDS pandemic, researchers said on Wednesday that HIV patients who take the drug combination has a much smaller chance to infect their partners. Using a combination of drugs to reduce the possibility of transmission of 92 percent, the researchers report in the journal Lancet. They said the findings meant a combination of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, may be useful as a means of prevention and treatment. “These results … until now strong evidence that HAART can reduce HIV transmission risk,” said Dr. Connie Celum, a professor of medicine and global health University of Washington, who worked on this study.
The team analyzed 3400 pairs from seven African countries. In each pair, one positive among immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS. The team tested the couple because they are easier to trace. All couples were given counseling about HIV prevention methods, and some were given HIV drugs.
During the study, 349 HIV-infected people began taking the drug combination. Of the 103 partners of patients taking the drug, only one was infected with the virus. “Data observation strongly supports the hypothesis that antiretroviral therapy substantially reduces the risk of HIV infection and transmission,” Dr. Deborah Donnell from the Institute of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the Fred Hutchinson of Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Donnell said, the drugs cut the concentration of HIV in the blood to extremely low levels, which can make people not easy to transmit. In people who take the drug, the virus was suppressed to very low levels in almost 70 percent of cases. A randomized trial is now underway to see whether the effect
immortal.
“While awaiting those results, our research indicates that antiretroviral therapy may have significant public health benefits as well as clinical benefits for individuals who were treated,” Donnell said in a statement. He said the findings offer strong arguments to begin early treatment for HIV. But although at a slower partner handled, drugs provide benefit.
AIDS virus infects 33 million people globally and has killed 25 million since the pandemic began in the 1980s. There is no cure and a vaccine but the drugs keep patients ‘healthy’. Without treatment, the viral damage to the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections and cancer.
More than 20 drugs now on the market and can be combined in various ways to control the virus, although it usually mutates and ultimately the patient must switch to different ways to keep under control. Manufacturers of drugs that includes GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Gilead, Bristol-Myers and Abbott Laboratories, according to Reuters.
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