Gender differences
However, while the overall findings are positive, they do show a difference between men and women. Women are living longer. One reason is that men wait longer before receiving treatment.
“Men just in general have a less health-seeking behavior as compared to females. Men spend more time looking for a job and spending more time away from their family to try to find a way to survive, I think may be one of the reasons. The second reason is obviously the issue about stigma, which is still quite affecting the majority of the people in the community,” he said.
Women may have a greater opportunity to learn their HIV status and receive treatment through pre-natal care programs. He says health officials need to “think hard” about how to overcome the “gender imbalance” in treatment.
Nachega supports the strategy of using treatment as prevention.
“We should no longer see treatment and prevention totally separately. Treatment, by itself, is also part of prevention. Because by treating people, and hopefully treating people earlier, they are less likely to transmit the virus to their sexual partner,” he said.
Studies also show that giving uninfected people antiretrovirals can help protect them from HIV during sex with their infected partners. It’s called preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Nachega says with the prevention tools now available, great progress can be made against the epidemic. But he says the magic bullet of an effective AIDS vaccine remains elusive.
最新
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27