Spain expands Treatment as Prevention® with new HIV treatment guidelines

published on December 9, 2013

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) today lauded Spain for its new HIV treatment guidelines, which broadens eligibility to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV.

Developed by a panel composed of members of the GeSIDA/National AIDS Plan Secretariat (Grupo de Estudio de Sida and the Secretaría del Plan Nacional sobre el Sida), the new guidelines further expand the Treatment as Prevention® (TasP) strategy. The BC-CfE-pioneered strategy calls for widespread screening and provision of life-saving HIV medicine, thereby suppressing HIV and preventing transmission of the virus.

Spain's new guidelines expand access to treatment to patients with symptoms of HIV infection, in pregnant women, in serodiscordant couples with high risk of transmission, in hepatitis B co-infection requiring treatment, and in HIV nephropathy.

“This is excellent news for the people of Spain,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC-CfE. “There is clear evidence to demonstrate antiretroviral therapy dramatically reduces HIV and AIDS-related mortality and morbidity, while preventing new HIV infections.

“I applaud Spain for embracing Treatment as Prevention® to increase the number of people who can benefit from these life-saving drugs.”

In B.C., expansions of TasP has led to the number of individuals receiving treatment increasing from 837 in 1996 to more than 7,000 in 2012. As a result, HIV-related morbidity and mortality have declined by approximately 90 per cent since the early 1990s, and the number of new HIV diagnoses fell from approximately 800 per year prior to 1996 to 238 in 2012.

The updated Spanish HIV treatment guidelines were published this month in Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica.

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Spain expands Treatment as Prevention® with new HIV treatment guidelines

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