20100718
africanews

VIENNA (Reuters) - Treating HIV patients with cocktails of AIDS drugs helps to stop them spreading the infection further and more than halved the number of new HIV diagnoses in a study in Canada, scientists said on Sunday.

The findings show that treating those with HIV can not only help them live longer with the often fatal and incurable disease but can also be a powerful way of limiting the virus' spread.

Researchers found that since the introduction of a treatment plan called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV patients in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1996, the number of new HIV diagnoses has fallen by 52 percent.

Their study also found that rates of other sexually transmitted diseases went up, suggesting that it was the AIDS drugs and not other confounding factors such as condom use or less sexual activity, that produced a fall in HIV infections.

The results show that for every 100 patients placed on HAART new HIV diagnoses fell by 3 percent, suggesting that this type of treatment could significantly reduce the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

Experts commenting on the findings, which were reported at an international AIDS conference in Vienna on Sunday and in the Lancet journal, said they should be used to shape future treatment plans.

"Experiences such as those reported today should be strongly considered by clinicians, national and international agencies, (and) policymakers," said Franco Maggiolo and Sebastiano Leone of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Ospedali Riuniti in Italy, in a commentary in the Lancet. "HAART might play an important part in the future control of the HIV epidemic."

The AIDS virus infects 33.4 million people around the world and has killed 25 million since the pandemic began in the 1980s. There is no cure and no vaccine but drugs can keep patients healthy. Without treatment, the virus destroys the immune system, leaving patients susceptible to infections and cancer.