| Treat HIV Positive Addicts to Stop Spread of AIDS |
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A new model suggests that the best way to stop HIV from spreading in Russia is to treat needle-drug users with antiviral drugs.
The model shows that this will slow transmission of HIV into the general population. The study was lead by Douglas Owens, MD who works at Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. It is estimated that about 1 million Russians are infected with HIV and about 75 percent of those cases are injection drug users. The infection rate in Russia is one of the fastest-growing in the world. Over 14.5 million Russians could be infected with HIV by the year 2020. Even though there have been great advances in the treatment of HIV using antiretroviral drugs, less then 1 percent of people infected have access to them. These therapies use multiple drugs to reduce levels of HIV in a person’s blood. This not only benefits the person taking the drugs but it also reduces the chances of that person transmitting it to others. A computer model was created that showed how the virus spread through the adult population. Using infection rates among both drug and non-drug users they examined the impact of treating only non-drug users, treating addicts only and treating both. They found that by treating only non-drug users is not a good approach. According to the model, by treating only HIV-infected drug users, more infections would be prevented then by treating non-drug users only. This is because drug users are more likely to spread HIV through unprotected sex. By reducing their ability to spread HIV, the infection rate is reduced. To read the entire article, please click here . |
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