HIV treatment as protection: Next steps

摘要

Exciting new research has the potential to finally bring together two often-antagonistic branches of HIV/AIDS activities, treatment and prevention. The recently published results from the HIV Prevention Trials Network 052 study (HPTN 052) demonstrate the power of early antiretroviral treatment (ART) for almost completely preventing onward sexual HIV transmission in the clinical trial setting. This study offered proof of the concept that reduction of viral load through treatment could prevent HIV transmission, a concept that has served as the foundation for multiple modeling studies on treatment-as-prevention and one which was already held to be true by many. The data are incontrovertible, and although they resolve, the question of whether this approach can prevent HIV transmission, they also lead to a more fully informed discussion of how ART might actually be used to prevent transmission in communities. The articles included in this special section consider many of the points in such a discussion.