HIV

CDC: Updated Guidelines Address HIV Prevention

The CDC has released a new set of HIV guidelines updating, expanding, and consolidating previous recommendations.

According to the CDC, these updates were prompted by advances in HIV interventions, updated prevention goals, and recent changes to private and public healthcare in the United States.
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RELATED CONTENT
70% of HIV Cases Are Not Under Control
Annual HIV Diagnosis Rate Has Fallen Over 30%
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The report updates and expands the 2003 recommendations including:

  • Screen for behaviors that could transmit HIV and starting behavioral interventions to reduce the risk of transmission
  • STD screening, treatment and other health services to reduce HIV transmission
  • Provide services for sex partners and drug-injection partners of persons with HIV
  • Refer individuals for other medical and social services that influence HIV transmission or use of HIV prevention and care services

Further, the report includes 7 new recommendations:

  • Address individual, social, structural, ethical, legal, policy, and programmatic factors that influence HIV transmission and use of HIV prevention and care services
  • Link to and provide retention in HIV medical care
  • Use antiretroviral treatment (ART) to improve health and prevent HIV transmission
  • Achieve sustained high adherence to ART to reduce infectiousness
  • Provide reproductive healthcare for women and men to reduce HIV transmission during conception and pregnancy
  • Provide pregnancy-related services to reduce risk of sexual or perinatal transmission during recognized pregnancy
  • Monitor, evaluate, and improve the quality of HIV prevention and care services and programs for persons with HIV

 “By directing these recommendations to a wide range of health professionals and organizations, this report highlights both their unique and shared roles in carrying out individual and population-level HIV prevention and care strategies,” researchers wrote. “It also underscores opportunities for collaboration across clinical, nonclinical, and public health organizations.”

Note: The recommendations fail to address comprehensive guidelines on all prevention and care services for persons with HIV.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

CDC. Recommendations for HIV prevention with adults and adolescents with HIV in the United States, 2014. CDC Stacks. 2014 December 11. http://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/26062. Accessed December 15, 2014.