Updated Fri. Aug. 4 2006 10:44 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A provocative new strategy for tackling HIV could reduce the global prevalence of the virus seventy-fold, according to a Canadian doctor who designed the theory.
The strategy would revolve around the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART -- a treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection that uses a combination of several antiretroviral drugs....However, less than 30 per cent of the people in the world who qualify for antiretroviral drugs are taking them, and more than 70 per cent are not. These are the people who are fueling the growth of the epidemic, said CTV's medical specialist Avis Favaro.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Julio Montaner, explained his theory using the analogy of paying off a mortgage. "The greater your down payment, the sooner your mortgage extinguishes," Montaner told Canada AM Friday. "We're looking at treatment here in the same way."
According to Montaner's theory, the sooner you put people in treatment, the greater the reduction of HIV transmission. "You could have a very dramatic effect on the epidemic to the point this epidemic could extinguish itself," he said.
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