For the first time in modern history, the world has the opportunity “to change the very course of the HIV pandemic, effectively controlling it without a vaccine or cure,” according to the latest U.S. report on HIV/AIDS relief.
Five African countries — Malawi, Eswatini, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — are now close to controlling the HIV epidemic, according to the PEPFAR report. Achieving control assumes that if people with HIV are tested early in their infection and start treatment immediately, the virus will be suppressed in their bloodstream, thereby reducing further transmission of HIV in the population.
Not long ago, this might have seemed impossible in these countries.
The latest PEPFAR strategy targets 13 countries with the most vulnerable communities to HIV/AIDS that have the potential to control HIV by 2020: Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Rwanda.
Source: U.S. Mission Brazil