A 10-YEAR study into the impact of HIV 'treatment as prevention' has found that a 27% increase in people accessing effective HIV treatment saw a decrease in infections by 66% between 2010-2019, in NSW and Victoria.
The findings, published yesterday in Lancet HIV, show the success of HIV treatment as prevention in reducing new infections, especially when complemented by the availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis and increased access to diagnostic testing.
Treatment as prevention - or TasP - is a global public health strategy that is built on the evidence that HIV treatment results in virally suppressing the virus, which effectively reduces an individual's risk of transmitting HIV to zero.
While there is strong evidence to support TasP's effectiveness, Kirby Institute and Burnet Institute researchers are the first to analyse the impact of this strategy on overall HIV infections at a population level, showing "our research that investing in HIV testing is crucial for HIV elimination", said Kirby's lead researcher Dr Denton Callander.
"To test the 'big picture' impacts of this HIV prevention strategy, we examined 10 years of clinical data from over 100,000 gay and bisexual men in NSW and Victoria," he said.
"We found that over time, as viral suppression increased, HIV incidence decreased.
"Indeed, every percentage point increase in successfully treated HIV saw a fivefold decrease in new infections, thus establishing treatment as prevention as a powerful public health strategy."
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