The battle against the HIV virus has largely shifted to prevention, according to a Reuters story out of Toronto, Canada.
"Prevention of HIV had slipped off the agenda and now is being pushed by unexpected quarters," Dr. Peter Piot, head of the UN Aids agency.
"In the past, if I had mentioned prevention, I would have been accused of being against treatment," Piot said
One promising approach is called PreP, for pre-exposure prophylaxis. Some early studies suggest that people at high risk of infection could take one or two of the safest drugs used as part of HIV cocktails to help protect themselves.
"If you are a female who is working every day obviously you have to take it every day," Dr. Joep Lange of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, told a news conference.
Just over fifty percent, or 17.3 million, of the thirty-four million adults who are now infected with this immune system attacking disease are females, according to the WHO.
These measure will have to work in India, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa for these measures to really stem the tide of the epedemic. These regions lead the world in the disease while being historically opposed to condom use.
The U.S. currently leads the world in funding HIV relief and prevention efforts but Piot said that other countries need to help as well...."You cannot replace the state and government when you are dealing with a massive problem like AIDS, and it cannot come only from rich countries," he is quoted as saying.
"Honestly, China is flooding the world with goods. They have to start investing in social issues."
"Prevention of HIV had slipped off the agenda and now is being pushed by unexpected quarters," Dr. Peter Piot, head of the UN Aids agency.
"In the past, if I had mentioned prevention, I would have been accused of being against treatment," Piot said
One promising approach is called PreP, for pre-exposure prophylaxis. Some early studies suggest that people at high risk of infection could take one or two of the safest drugs used as part of HIV cocktails to help protect themselves.
"If you are a female who is working every day obviously you have to take it every day," Dr. Joep Lange of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, told a news conference.
Just over fifty percent, or 17.3 million, of the thirty-four million adults who are now infected with this immune system attacking disease are females, according to the WHO.
These measure will have to work in India, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa for these measures to really stem the tide of the epedemic. These regions lead the world in the disease while being historically opposed to condom use.
The U.S. currently leads the world in funding HIV relief and prevention efforts but Piot said that other countries need to help as well...."You cannot replace the state and government when you are dealing with a massive problem like AIDS, and it cannot come only from rich countries," he is quoted as saying.
"Honestly, China is flooding the world with goods. They have to start investing in social issues."
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