Is Elimination of a Generalized HIV Epidemic Possible?

HIV prevention efforts have historically been focused on protecting susceptible individuals from HIV acquisition rather than on reducing transmission by infectious individuals. Recently, however, investigators have begun to explore the idea that treating HIV-infected patients with antiretroviral therapy (ART) might prevent HIV transmission by reducing viral replication and lowering patients’ viral set points. In the present study, WHO researchers used data from South Africa to evaluate whether a combination of universal voluntary HIV testing and immediate ART (regardless of CD4-cell count) could hypothetically reduce and eventually prevent HIV transmission in the setting of a generalized HIV epidemic. Almost all transmission was assumed to …