WHO pushes early HIV treatment

The World Health Organization is pushing for earlier treatment of HIV, the AIDS virus, which could reduce related deaths by 20 per cent over the next five years, it says. At the end of 2009, there were over 5 million people receiving treatment for it, up more than a million from 2008, the largest ever increase in a year, Reuters reports. Under the new guidelines, the number needing treatment would go up to 15 million by 2015, even though some countries are concerned about funding. In its first new guidance for four years, unveiled at the AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna, the WHO called for treatment to begin before a patient’s immune system is severely undermine. Expanding treatment would push up the costs for 2010 to $9 billion, the UN says.

BBC News