Healthy individuals could reduce their risk of HIV infection if they take ARV's as a preventative method
27 May 2014 | Healthcare | General | Graham Anderson, Profmed
The introduction of Antiretroviral drugs (ARV’s) as a means to supress the HIV virus has had a significant impact on reducing the rate of death, suffering and transmission rates of the virus globally. Since then, it has been reported that certain States in the U.S. have been advocating for the use of ARV’s in HIV negative individuals who, because of their lifestyles, are at higher risk of contracting the virus.
Statistics released by UNAIDS, show that the estimated number of new infections in South Africa has decreased from 540 000 to 370 000 which equates to a 30% decline as a result of government’s ARV rollout plan.
According to Graham Anderson, principal officer of Profmed, the medical scheme catering exclusively to graduate professionals, prevention is always better than cure. "Though we are certainly not advocating promiscuous lifestyles amongst individuals, we believe that if an individual is already living this lifestyle, or is at risk of contracting the virus, taking ARV’s on a daily basis, much like a woman would take a contraceptive pill, may have a significant impact on further protecting them against contracting the virus.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted a study called the HPTN 052 on almost 2000 heterosexual couples who were "discordant", which means one person was HIV positive and the other person was negative. "The study revealed that heterosexual HIV-infected individuals who received ARVs much earlier – as soon as they had been diagnosed – were 96% less likely to transmit the virus to their HIV-negative sexual partners,” explains Anderson.
He says it therefore makes sense that healthy individuals can further protect themselves against the contraction of the virus if they take ARV’s as a preventative method. This method could help prevent transmission to women, whose partners refuse to use condoms even though they may have multiple sexual partners.
He says the only problem with this is that ARV’s are not easily available for the majority of the population who cannot afford medical aid or pay for medication at a pharmacy. "International funding for HIV programmes and medication supplied to government institutions in the developing world is dwindling – and a treatment-as-prevention strategy would entail ARV budgets four to five times their current size,” explains Anderson.
Therefore, this strategy would currently only work amongst individuals who can afford to pay for the ARV’s as most medical aids who do not pay for contraception would also not pay for ARV’s as a preventative method for those who are not infected with the virus. "We urge government to consider this method of prevention as a means to control long term costs – the lower the rate of infection, the lower is the cost of treatment,” advises Anderson.
Furthermore, he says for those who are hoping to take ARV’s as a preventative method against contracting the virus that they visit their general practitioner for a prescription and take the drugs correctly. "ARVs work only when taken correctly. If not, they're ineffective and patients run the risk of building up resistance to the drugs and spreading a drug-resistant virus."
"We would encourage every South African to be tested for the disease at least once a year and for those who are already infected to manage their disease effectively through healthy lifestyles and the use of ARV’s,” says Anderson.
