A new study shows that treating people with HIV has an extra benefit: it protects the people around them. The drugs lower the amount of virus in body fluids, and with it the chance of passing the infection on.
Figures from British Columbia showed that for every 100 more people treated, new infections fell by 3%. The Canadian province has halved new infections since the treatment was introduced in 1996.
US health agencies estimate that about 1.1 million Americans have HIV, 20% of whom don't know they are infected, with about 55,000 new cases a year.
US health agencies have been criticised for not seriously pursuing an effective HIV vaccine, and the study itself is not a breakthrough. A decade ago, a study in Africa showed that a low amount of virus in the blood means a lower chance of infection, and its results were applied at once to pregnant women, greatly reducing new infections in newborns. The only new thing in this study is the newer drugs introduced in 1996.
The number of people being treated for HIV rose from 837 in 1996 to 5,413 in 2006, while new diagnoses fell from 702 to 338 a year.
The drop was not due to safer sex, because other sexually transmitted infections rose over the same period.
The study still insists that treatment alone is not enough: safer sex is needed to stop the virus spreading.
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