NEW YORK TIMES: People with H.I.V. should be put on antiretroviral drugs as soon as they learn they are infected, federal health officials said Wednesday as they announced that they were halting the largest ever clinical trial of early treatment because its benefits were already so clear.
The study was stopped more than a year early because preliminary data already showed that those who got treatment immediately were 53 percent less likely to die during the trial or develop AIDS or a serious illness than those who waited.
The study is strong evidence that early treatment saves more lives, the officials said. Fewer than 14 million of the estimated 35 million people infected with H.I.V. around the world are on treatment now, according to U.N.AIDS, the United Nations AIDS-fighting agency. In the United States, only about 450,000 of the estimated 1.2 million with H.I.V. are on treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention… (more)
EDITOR: One of the several purposes of syringe exchanges is to encourage and facilitate injection drug users to undergoing HIV tests.
Exchanges in Reading, Lancaster and Harrisburg help to identify those with HIV. Their efforts not only help save client lives but also diminishes the secondary spread of AIDS through sexual contact.
