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Vigilance in Tackling Drug Resistance in the Global Battle Against HIV

Vigilance in Tackling Drug Resistance in the Global Battle Against HIV

The Global Fund - "Today, an estimated 20.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS are on antiretrovirals (ARVs), up from 7.7 million in 2010. Although access to HIV treatment has grown dramatically, 15.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS are still not on treatment today. Getting people on treatment is not only important in allowing HIV-positive people to live full lives, but also because “treatment as prevention” is a key pillar in the global fight against the disease. Yet a recent Lancet article shows that an increase in ARV drug resistance is posing a significant threat to progress to date, and to our ability to end the epidemic.

(...) A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) emphasizes the importance of national drug resistance surveillance systems and the urgency of responding to growing HIV drug resistance. Of the 11 countries that have reported data on pre-treatment HIV drug resistance (resistance detected before an individual begins taking ARVs), six countries reported resistance levels at or above 10 percent to the two most affordable and widely used drugs." (Photo: Antiretroviral Drugs to Treat HIV Infection/NIAID/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

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