For every person who is living with HIV and receives anti-retroviral treatment, three new cases of infection are reported. In the United States, where anti-retroviral treatment starts at a CD4 count of 350, incidence of new infection remain between 40 000 and 55 000 per year.
This is some of the worrisome statistics revealed by Dr King Holmes, chairperson of the department of Global Health at the University of Washington, this week.
He said if the situation should be addressed, assessing the situation and implementing prevention programmes accordingly is necessary.
Citing Uganda as an example, he said policy-makers should know the epidemic and target multiple populations such as truckers, police, bus drivers, female sex workers and pregnant women.
“There is no magic bullet or we probably cannot treat our way out of the HIV epidemic. Therefore multiple synergistic modalities including male circumcision, treatment, behavioural change and condom use should be part of HIV prevention programmes.  Not only one of these will work it has to be an inclusive model. According to findings of trials done in Southern Africa, there has been a reduction of 60% in HIV infections in areas where circumcision was rolled out. So this is also one way of effectively dealing with the epidemic, although it is not the only one,” said Holmes.
He said clinicians should also not just concentrate on treatment, but should also encourage condom use, counselling of both partners and behavioural change.
Holmes illustrated these points during a lecture talk with the theme,  ‘HIV & STI Prevention: What approaches are available, what works?’ at UNAM.