Researchers plan HIV tests for
everyone in at least 30 South African regions in what may be the
biggest trial of a strategy for eliminating transmission of the
AIDS-causing virus.
In a five-year study starting this year, scientists from
France and South Africa will screen thousands of people for HIV,
said Bernard Hirschel, head of the HIV-AIDS unit of Geneva
University Hospital in Switzerland. In half the regions, they’ll
start treatment immediately for those who test positive. In the
other half, they’ll wait until the patients’ immune systems
deteriorate to a certain level, Hirschel said.
The experiment is designed to see whether starting
treatment straight away can reduce or eliminate transmission of
HIV, which infects 2.7 million people and kills 2 million every
year. The World Health Organization recommends that patients
start receiving HIV drugs when their infection-fighting cells
fall to a certain level. The researchers have been planning the
trial for two years, Hirschel said at the International AIDS
Conference in Vienna today.