Featured news from NHIVNA
HIV-related news from NAM
Couples study in Uganda finds no HIV infections from partners on antiretroviral therapy
Gus Cairns, 2013-02-18 06:50:00
A longitudinal cohort study of heterosexual couples in Uganda has found more evidence of the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in curbing HIV infection within the community.
The study found 119 new HIV infections in 2334 couples over the course of the study, and 62 infections among the 254 couples that were initially or who became HIV serodiscordant. But it did not find a single example of transmission from a partner who was on antiretroviral therapy.
It also found that the rate of HIV infection between couples declined over time and that transmission likelihood was related to the HIV-positive partner’s viral load, although because widespread ART has only been available in Uganda relatively recently, neither of these findings quite reached statistical significance.
It also found that men in the study were significantly more likely to transmit HIV, and women more likely to acquire it; that Muslims were considerably less likely to acquire or transmit HIV, in part probably because of the influence of circumcision; and it found that transmission and acquisition were both much more likely where the male partner was more than 15 years older than the female partner.
Source:1
