HIV: Early Treatment Could Reduce Partner Transmission

HIV-positive people with healthy immune systems, who started taking oral antiretroviral medicines early in their infection reduced the risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners by 96%, according to new data by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released Thursday.

“Previous data about the potential value of antiretrovirals in making HIV-infected individuals less infectious to their sexual partners came largely from observational and epidemiological studies,” NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., said in a statement Thursday. “This new finding convincingly demonstrates that treating the infected individual—and doing so sooner rather than later—can have a major impact on reducing HIV transmission.”

Read the rest of the report at HIV Plus magazine.