Couples should test together

New international HIV-testing guidelines are encouraging couples to be tested together and urging the immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy for a person testing positive with the virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that a person with HIV (who has an HIV-negative partner) be offered HIV treatment regardless of their CD4 cell count level. This would be potentially earlier than they would otherwise be "eligible" for treatment under current treatment guidelines.

The move by the WHO is a reflection of last year's landmark data which showed that early HIV treatment can prevent the spread of the virus from one person to another by 96 percent. Doctors without Borders access campaign medical director Nathan Ford welcomed the guidelines "as a major advance in the fight against HIV that puts us on the road towards reversing the epidemic".

The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has called on all countries to implement the recommendations. Executive director Michel Sidibé said couples could now reap the benefits of antiretroviral therapy, to improve their own health and to protect their loved ones. He said that by encouraging couples to test together, comprehensive options for HIV prevention and treatment could be provided.

The WHO recommends that antiretroviral therapy be offered to HIV-positive individuals when their partners test negative, even when they do not require it for their own health. The guidance states it is possible for couples to stay HIV-positive and negative indefinitely if they consistently practise sex using condoms.

UNAIDS recommends that couples should also be given access to health services such as tuberculosis screening, family planning and conception counselling.

Anso Thom: Health-e News Service via the Cape Times, 23 April 2012