Pathways to HIV prevention success

A report released at the IAS 2019 conference in Mexico City documents dramatic reductions in HIV incidence and mortality achieved in six different settings, Africa Science News reports. Lower rates of new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths have been attributed to campaigns to encourage HIV testing, free access to treatment at the time of diagnosis with HIV, and scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention, such as voluntary medical male circumcision, pre-exposure prophylaxis and harm reduction. Chris Collins, president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is quoted as saying the report shows that “ending the epidemic isn’t an insurmountable challenge but a question of putting the evidence to work and scaling access, particularly for those most at risk” (Africa Science News, 23 July 2019).