Wider Distribution of Drugs Needed to Cut AIDS Deaths in China

among people with HIV/AIDS dropped greatly as China rolled out its antiretroviral therapy (ART) program, a new study shows. The state program began in 2003 and targeted mainly rural patients infected in the 1990s through unsanitary blood-buying schemes.

To cut AIDS deaths further, however, China also will have to reach out to treat those infected sexually and through needle sharing, noted Dr. Fujie Zhang, of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention in Beijing, and colleagues. “Increased attention must be given to these populations, to diagnose HIV infection earlier, and increase treatment coverage,” they wrote.

Among treatment-eligible patients studied, mortality dropped from 39.3 per 100 person-years in 2002 to 14.2 per 100 person-years in 2009, while treatment coverage grew from almost zero to 63.4 percent, the study found.

“Treatment coverage for blood-donor HIV patients is up to 80 percent, and their mortality is 6.7 percent,” Zhang said. “But for injecting drug users, treatment there is only 43 percent and mortality is much higher at 16 percent.”

“Before ART, the mortality rate was 40 percent,” Zhang said. “After ART, it was 14.2 percent. Those on HAART [highly active antiretroviral therapy] had mortality of 5.7 percent.”

Of China’s official estimate of 740,000 people with HIV, 323,252 had been diagnosed by the end of 2009. Among them, 82,540 received free treatment - mainly those infected through blood-buying operations.

“HAART reduces mortality and increases quality of life, and if HAART is implemented on a larger scale, it reduces transmission in the population,” said Zhang. “Treating one person perfectly is meaningless, but treating many will bring transmission down. So we must increase coverage and then treat early.”

The full report, “Effect of Earlier Initiation of Antiretroviral Treatment and Increased Treatment Coverage on HIV-Related Mortality in China: A National Observational Cohort Study,” was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases (2011;doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70097-4).

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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