Final follow up from a major study, HPTN 052, examining how antiretrovirals reduce the risk of HIV transmission among heterosexuals has found that no participant with fully suppressed viral load infected his or her long-term HIV negative partner. The results come four years after the study’s initial results indicated that early HIV treatment reduced the risk of HIV transmission by 96%.
Professor Myron Cohen from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presented the report at the 8th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention on July 21 in Vancouver. Describing the results as “the final word” from HPTN 052, he presented a final intent-to-treat analysis of the study, which demonstrated in 2011 that early antiretroviral treatment greatly reduced the risk of HIV transmission among mixed status partners.
