Treatment vs prevention will be one of the major topics at the forum (file photo) The contentious issue of the use of treatment as an HIV prevention strategy will be hammered out at the HIV Treatments Update forum in Auckland tomorrow. Organiser Bruce Kilmister from Body Positive hopes there will be serious debate about the subject. To this end he has lined up New Zealand AIDS Foundation Executive Director Shaun Robinson to speak, who is on record as saying the concept of a lowered viral load is impractical and dangerous. “In New Zealand we have a huge amount to lose if we chose to promote these options without thinking carefully about what that could do to condom use,” he says in the latest NZAF newsletter. “Our condom culture is precious, it saves lives, it is getting stronger and as a result, HIV diagnoses are declining.” Robinson is so disturbed by the concept he has even castigated the head of UNAIDS for welcoming the treatment as prevention method. Speaking on “the treatment revolution” will be Associate Professor Don Smith, an HIV and sexual health medicine specialist from Sydney’s Albion St Centre, the largest ambulatory HIV clinic in Australia. “When someone goes on treatment it makes them much less infectious, perhaps 1,000 times less infectious than they would be if they weren't on treatment,” he has previously told ABC Radio National. “So,” he continued, “the more people who actually end up on treatment, the less new infections that there should be.” The forum at the Pullman Hotel will also hear reports on the recent International AIDS Conference in Washington DC and the report of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. There will also be a discussion around a syphilis outbreak in Christchurch, an update on treatments and a talk on culture, law and religion.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 20th September 2012 - 2:59pm