AEGiS-NYT: Complacency on AIDS Prevention

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Complacency on AIDS Prevention

The New York Times - July 26, 2004

A few years after the antiretroviral cocktail became available in 1996, turning AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic disease, unsafe sexual practices began to surge in the United States and Europe. New diagnoses of H.I.V. in the United States, which had been steady, rose 5 percent from 1999 to 2002, with a 17 percent rise among gay men. Antiretroviral drugs are still a dream for most of the world. Only 7 percent of those who need treatment outside rich countries get it, about 400,000 people. But that number will likely be in the millions soon, and it is crucial that the pattern of the developed world - better treatment apparently leading to rising infection rates - not repeat itself.

A recent report from the Global H.I.V. Prevention Working Group, an organization of AIDS experts, warns of this danger. It also points out the many ways that AIDS treatment can assist prevention campaigns. Countries like Brazil that have emphasized treatment and prevention simultaneously are a model.

The paradox of treatment leading to new infection occurs in several ways. Sick people restored to health by antiretroviral drugs feel well enough to be sexually active, thus passing along H.I.V. Governments tend to become more casual about prevention campaigns. This is a shame; people who get counseling are far more likely to reduce risky sexual behavior.

The world must invest far more in prevention. Training and employing counselors takes money, as does research and an adequate and reliable supply of condoms. But increased resources for prevention, carefully spent, will complement new AIDS treatment programs, together saving tens of millions of lives.
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