U.S. HIV/AIDS policy and funding should be guided by science, policy statement recommends

The IDSA Center for Global Health Policy and the HIV Medicine Association recently released a policy statement (.pdf) responding to the results of the HPTN 052 study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH, which found that people with HIV who received immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) were more than 96 percent less likely to sexually transmit the infection to their uninfected partners. The statement provides recommendations for U.S. global and domestic AIDS policy and recommends that a larger share of the PEPFAR budget, up to 50 percent, be devoted to treatment; that HIV counseling and testing, including couples counseling, be expanded in all venues; and that PEPFAR prevention expenditures be evaluated based on evidence of efficacy of reducing HIV incidence, among other recommendations (9/9).