HAART for HIV Prevention, an Overview
(reproduced with permission)

Despite the interesting results of an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand (RV144), HIV prevention is still limited to a small number of options many of which are not bullet-proof. Biomedical interventions based on vaccines and microbicides are still a long shot away. Conversely, treatment is working well in bringing HIV-infected people back to a normal life and potentially reducing the risk of HIV transmission by reducing their viral load. The use of antiretroviral drugs as a means …

OPINION. One objection against the use of ARV treatment for HIV prevention is that it puts people on treatment whilst they may clinically not need it. My first reaction to that is to ask when is it clinically relevant to treat an HIV infected person? So far the various guidelines produced are clear and based on the CD4 count. But the guidelines have changed during the years and the goalpost has been moved from below 200 to below 350 and soon to below 500 and is reaching the mean Cd4 …

HIV acquisition and HIV transmission through sexual intercourse are two very different things. The former relates to an HIV negative individual being infected by an HIV positive person whilst the later is about an HIV positive individual infecting an HIV negative person.
That may seems obvious or hair splitting, but when it comes to ending the spread of HIV in the population, it is very important to understand the difference between HIV acquisition and HIV transmission.
HIV acquisition can be regarded as a dynamic and active process in the person exposed to …

Watch this provocative TED talk and read the accompanying article at CNN.

The Compassionate Conundrum by Elizabeth Pisani

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In February 2007, a Welsh man was diagnosed with HIV at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary in Wales. So far, he was one amongst the 2500+ new HIV diagnoses in the UK that year. But he became the subject of scientific investigation when he reported 62 sexual encounters in the previous 6 months.
Of his first 9 sexual partners contacted by a team of researchers from the Cardiff Royal Infirmary interested in the transmission of HIV through sexual network, 5 turned out to be HIV positive. This did not mean that he …