HIV prevention
The HIV epidemic is now over 30 years old and is still growing.
Researchers are therefore urgently trying to find new methods of preventing new infections.
Two new approaches to prevention that have generated a lot of interest and controversy are circumcision, and the use of HIV treatment to lower viral load.
Taking your HIV treatment
Your HIV treatment is more likely to work if you take it properly. The medical term for this is adherence.
Taking your HIV treatment is a lifetime commitment, and researchers in London wanted to see if their patients were able to maintain the necessary adherence level of at least 95% in the long-term.
They therefore looked at the adherence rates of 2000 patients for up to nine years.
The results showed that these remained steady. There was even a slight increase in adherence the longer someone took HIV treatment.
But they did find that a large number of patients had occasional adherence problems.
You can find more about taking your HIV treatment in NAM’s booklet Adherence and resistance, and on our website for people with HIV, namlife.org.
HIV travel bans
A total of 52 countries around the world impose some sort of restriction on people with HIV. These range from outright bans that prohibit even short visits to restrictions on residency.
China’s HIV travel ban was recently in the news when an Australian novelist with HIV was refused a visa to attend a literary festival in this country.
Other countries won’t let people with HIV stay for more than three months, and having HIV can lead to the refusal of immigration applications.
“Travel restrictions for people living with HIV do not protect public health and are outdated in the age of universal access to HIV prevention and treatment,” commented Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS.
Campaigning can lead to the repeal of travel bans. The US removed its long-standing, near-total restrictions in January this year.
If you’re thinking of travelling, there’s information on some of the issues you may need to think about on namlife.org.
The online global database on HIV-specific travel and residence restrictions is a useful source of further information, including a full list of restrictions on entry and residence.