invited lecturer: julio montaner
Treatment as Prevention - The Key to an AIDS-free Generation
January 23, 2013
Organized by AMC Department of Global Health & AIGHD
Abstract of presentation
Treatment of HIV/AIDS While an outright cure or a preventive vaccine for HIV/AIDS remain elusive, remarkable advances in HIV treatment have been achieved over the past two decades. Most significant among these advances is the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Two international clinical trials presented at the 1996 International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, served as the cornerstone for the emergence of triple therapy regimens based on the use of two nucleosides plus either a protease inhibitor or a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (aka highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART) as the new standard of care. In each case the novel triple therapy regimen used among treatment naïve individuals fully suppressed HIV replication and therefore rendered the number of viral copies present in a patient’s blood undetectable. As a result the CD4 cell counts recovered and the disease was placed into a long-term remission. In the province of British Columbia (BC), within three years of the implementation of HAART, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) documented an 85% reduction in HIV/AIDS mortality among patients engaged in treatment. Similar results have been observed in other resource rich environments, and more recently in resource limited settings, where HAART has become available. read more ..>
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Biography
Julio Montaner, MD, DSc (hon), FRCPC, FCCP, FACP, FRSC, OBC
Dr. Montaner is a Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of AIDS at University of British Columbia (BC). He also holds the endowed Chair in AIDS Research. He is the Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the Past-President of the International AIDS Society. He played a key role in establishing the efficacy of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and since then has established the role of HAART with financial support of the BC Ministry of Health Services, an Avant Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US, as well as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Merck, ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Janssen Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. His current research interests include HAART as prevention, optimal use of HAART, salvage therapy, new antiretrovirals, as well as hard to reach populations and harm reduction.