Seeing red about HIV.

摘要

Combinations of antiretroviral drugs for HIV infection-highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)-began to be introduced in the mid-1990s. These combinations, when taken properly and consistently, are extremely effective and are now the mainstay of treatment. For instance, the Swiss HIV Cohort Study, in a follow-up since 1996, reported last year that HAART reduced the rate of progression to AIDS or death by 86% compared with no treatment.The effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy against HIV led to the 3-by-5 initiative launched by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and WHO in 2003, a target to provide 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in low-income and middle-income countries with lifelong treatment by the end of 2005.-by-5 was heralded as the start of making access to HIV treatment universal. By June last year, UNAIDS and WHO reported a more than doubling, to about 1 million, of the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapies, but admitted to doubts about achieving their target.