WHO Calls For Early HIV Drug Treatment for All

Everyone who has HIV should receive antiretroviral drugs as early as possible following their diagnosis, which means over 37 billion people globally, should be receiving the treatment said the (WHO) World Health Organization on Wednesday.

Recently complete clinical trials confirmed early use of the antiretroviral drugs help to extend the lives of people with the virus that cause AIDS and can lower the risk of the disease being transmitting between partners, said the WHO in a prepared statement that set out the new goals for its 194 members.

Under guidelines previously followed by WHO, which limited the HIV treatment to people whose count of immune cells had dropped below their set threshold, meant that 28 million people were eligible for their ART – anti-retroviral therapy.

However, WHO said today that all people with a substantial risk of HIV infection need to be given ART as prevention, not only men having sex with one another.

WHO has a goal of eliminating the epidemic of AIDS by 2030, and its guidelines are one of the central issues of the agency from the United Nations in its fight.

Analysts said this new move would cause a steep increase in the demand for the ART treatment, which typically are dose in a cocktail of three drugs in an attempt to risk a resistance to the drugs developing.

Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, through its majority owned ViiV Healthcare and a number of generic drug makers in India are the biggest suppliers of the drugs used to fight HIV.

The medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders has welcomed the plan of treat all by WHO. The group says it believes it will prevent many of the people who are HIV positive in countries that are poor from dropping through the treatment cracks.

The group also said that make this new recommendations would require a dramatic increase in the amount of financial support from government and donors.