How Early Treatment Can Limit the Spread of HIV

17 May 2011

A patient infected with HIV prepares her medicines in this 2008 file photo

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

For people infected with HIV, the earlier they start treatment, the better -- and better not just for them. A new study shows that early treatment greatly reduces the risk that the partner of an infected person will also get infected. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is with the United States National Institutes of Health which paid for the study.

ANTHONY FAUCI: "Many studies have been showing that the earlier you start, the better it is for the person who is infected. This study shows that not only is it better for the person who is infected, but it helps that person from transmitting to the person that's their sexual partner, heterosexual partner."

Researchers cannot say if the results would be the same in men who have sex with men. Most of the couples in the study were heterosexual.

The study took place in Botswana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, the United States and Zimbabwe. It involved almost two thousand couples divided into two groups.

In one group, the infected man or woman began to take a combination of three antiretroviral drugs immediately after being found to have HIV. In the other group, the infected partners began drug treatment only when they started to show signs of getting AIDS.