WHO releases guidance on couples testing, counseling, including ART for discordant couples

The WHO on Wednesday released its new 54-page "Guidance on couples HIV testing and counselling, including antiretroviral therapy (ART) for treatment and prevention in serodiscordant couples: Recommendations for a public health approach," according to the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog. "Intended for national policymakers and relevant health program managers in low- and middle-income countries with generalized HIV epidemics, the guidelines were set to be released at the International AIDS Conference in Rome last July, but delayed in order to consider results from two clinical trials looking at ART use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that showed a strong prevention benefit, as well as the relevance of couples counseling and testing among pairs who are men who have sex with men (MSM) and/or inject drugs," the blog notes. The guidance "also touches on recent evidence that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with some antiretrovirals taken in discordant couples can help to prevent sexual acquisition of HIV, and notes that the WHO is reviewing this data and hopes to have a 'rapid advice' document on PrEP available sometime this year to help guide programs in discordant couples and in MSM communities," the blog states (Mazzotta, 4/18).