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 Almost 80,000 adults in Uganda and Kenya took part in the study,
which used community campaigns, free testing and tests at home to
encourage people to know their HIV status and get treatment.
After the intervention, 81 percent of people with HIV had an
undetectable viral load, because they tested, initiated medication
and adhered to it successfully, up from 45 percent two years
earlier.
"It is very promising," one of the lead researchers, Maya Petersen
of the University of California, told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation.
"We reached most HIV positive people in these communities."
UNAIDS, the U.N. agency dealing with the disease, has unveiled
ambitious targets to tackle the epidemic.
By 2020, it wants 90 percent of people with HIV to know their
status, 90 percent of diagnosed people to be on treatment, and 90
percent of those on treatment to have suppressed levels of the virus
in their bodies.
This translates to 73 percent of all people with HIV having an
undetectable viral load.
Pointing to the results of the study in Uganda and Kenya, Petersen
said it was possible to meet the 90-90-90 UNAIDS targets within a
relatively short period.
"Over two years ... communities went from substantially below the
United Nations target to achieving it," Petersen said by phone from
Durban in South Africa where the results were released at the
International AIDS Conference.
STIGMA AROUND TESTING
Scaling up HIV treatment in developing countries is of key concern
to the experts meeting in South Africa.
Only 17 million of the 36.7 million HIV positive people around the
world are taking antiretroviral treatment.
New infections, at 2.1 million in 2015, still exceed the number of
people starting antiretroviral treatment each year, Chris Beyrer,
president of the International AIDS Society said.
One of the main problems is that people do not know they are HIV
positive because of the stigma around testing.
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Researchers have tried to address this by setting up large tents in
public spaces where people could get tested free of charge for
malaria, hypertension and diabetes as well as HIV, Petersen said.
By the shores of Lake Victoria, which has the highest prevalence
rates in Kenya, tests were offered on the beach at night so that
fishermen, who sleep during the day, could attend.
Using a baseline household census, researchers then visited the
homes of community members who had not come for testing and offered
them a test.
Nearly half of those who tested newly positive started ART within a
week, Petersen said, as they were introduced to and welcomed by
local clinic staff immediately.
HIV/AIDS is the main cause of death among 10- to 19-year-olds in
Africa, UNAIDS says.
Yet young people proved to be one of the hardest groups to reach
with testing and treatment, particularly students who move away from
home to attend school and do not want their classmates to see them
taking medication, the study found.
The second phase of the study will look at new ways of reaching such
groups, Petersen said.
(Reporting by Katy Migiro; Editing by Katie Nguyen; Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking,
property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to
see more stories.)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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