ARV drugs block HIV / AIDS infection

The Department of HIV / AIDS Prevention and Control affirmed with the new study of the CDC (US), if using antiretroviral drugs to correct the regimen, 95% of HIV-infected people do not spread, from mother to child.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just announced that it is capable of preventing sexually transmitted diseases. The above information was shared at the press meeting on December 21, organized by the Department of HIV / AIDS - Ministry of Health in collaboration with CDC.

No need to use

Dr. John Bandford, Director of the HIV and TB Program of the CDC Office in Vietnam, said the CDC has conducted a 10-year study (2005-2015 period) with couples with 1 in 2 HIV-infected people. But sex does not use condoms or preventive medicine.

Proper use of ARVs will help prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection.(Photo: Khanh Anh).

The study was conducted on a large scale, in many Asian, African and American countries, with nearly 1,800 pairs of partners, of which 3% were gay. The results showed that if an HIV-infected person receiving antiretroviral therapy reaches the level of suppression of HIV, it will help prevent HIV transmission through sexual intercourse.

Notably, according to Dr. John Bandford, CDC's research team conducted three different studies on thousands of couples with thousands of times having sex without using condoms or pre-existing pre-exposure drugs. . As a result, no HIV positive cases spread disease to partners when HIV load is inhibited.

This new announcement is significant for many HIV patients and their non-HIV partners or husbands, because even though HIV patients who used drugs they were still advised to use a condom permanently to fight infection for your partner.

Reduce stigma and discrimination

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Director of the Department of HIV / AIDS Prevention, affirmed that the above scientific evidence shows the importance of ARV treatment for HIV-infected people."If HIV-infected people are treated right away, adherence to treatment regimens can live like normal people, sex without using condoms or preventive medicine also does not infect partners, having babies is not disease " - Mr. Long stressed.

Mr. Long explained that ARV has the effect of inhibiting HIV virus, reducing the amount of virus in the body, reducing the penetration, destroying the body's immune cells."Properly treated ARV treatment can reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission to other people by 95%, and also reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In addition, it is not only used in treatment, ARV is also possible. use in HIV exposure prophylaxis in situations where there is a risk of direct contact with blood or secretions from people with HIV, reducing the risk of HIV infection " - Mr. Long added.

According to the Ministry of Health, in Vietnam, there are currently 209,000 people infected with HIV but only 123,000 people are on ART, accounting for nearly 60%; The remaining 40% are not treated for many reasons but mainly due to fear of stigma and discrimination. This is also the reason why, the Department of HIV / AIDS Prevention and Control will promote advocacy and communication, to reduce stigma and discrimination, and help HIV infected people access new treatment methods.