A study known as HPTN 052 shows men and women living with HIV reduced their risk of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners by taking oral antiretroviral medicines. The study, which was supported by the United States National Institute of Health (NIH), began in April 2005 and enrolled 1,763 predominantly heterosexual (97%) HIV-discordant couples from 13 sites across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It is the first large-scale study to confirm that ART greatly reduces HIV transmission risk in HIV-discordant couples, where the person living with HIV has a CD4 cell count of between 350 -550.

The findings of the study contribute to a greater understanding of treatment’s preventative effect. Treatment is an essential part of combination prevention, along with other tools including condoms, access to information about HIV, harm reduction measures, ensuring human rights and the reduction of stigma.

As such, within the context of limited resources, treatment must be viewed as an investment in prevention. Where treatment is widely available, we will see an increased return on investment and reduced long-term demand on health services. This has important implications for universal access to treatment because it reduces the long-term cost of treatment rollout and scale-up

However, in order to realise both the individual and public health benefits of treatment, it is important that the rights of people living with HIV are recognised and protected in line with the values and principles of Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention. High rates of treatment uptake cannot be achieved in an environment of stigma and marginalisation, nor where programmes are beset by potential human rights violations – such as forced or uninformed testing or coerced initiation of ART primarily for the benefit of public health rather than the health and well-being of the individual. Recognising the rights of people living with HIV includes understanding that ART is primarily to benefit the health and wellbeing of the individual living with HIV, although any secondary, preventative benefits are welcomed. It also includes empowering individuals to make their own choices about if and when to test and if and when to take treatment.

Read more:

• GNP+ Information Note "Study confirms impact treatment on prevention" (PDF, 0,38 Mb)

• News release National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Treating HIV-infected People with Antiretrovirals Protects Partners from Infection

• GNP+’s advocacy on New Prevention Technologies

• GNP+’s advocacy on Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention