Fri 2 Oct 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A World Health Organisation recommendation that people newly-diagnosed with HIV should be started on anti-retroviral medications immediately have been welcomed by HIV-positive people's support and advocacy organisation Body Positive. Currently New Zealand prescribing guidelines make such medications available only when an infected person's immunity has dropped to a level indicated by a t-cell, or CD4, count of 500. This level is an improvement on the previous qualifying count of 350. The delay in providing HIV medications was traditionally based on concerns about how cost-effective such medications were and the long-term effects of exposure to powerful HIV drugs. Body Positive, which represents primarily gay and bi men with HIV is renewing its call for the qualifying level to be done away with. "In New Zealand the existing CD4 threshold of 500 which limits people’s access to treatment should be removed immediately by Pharmac for people to access medication as soon as they are ready says BP's Executive Director Mark Fisher. At the recent HIV Treatment Update Seminar information from a study which has been ongoing couples in which only one partner has HIV highlighted that no linked infections were observed when HIV was suppressed by effective medications. The reduction in risk of transmission was effectively 100% when the HIV-positive partner's virus was rendered medically undetectable my medication regimes. Body Positive's welcoming of the new WHO guidelines has been echoed by the NZ AIDS Foundation. “This is a double benefit for the individual and for the whole community,” says its Executive Director Shaun Robinson. “The reduced costs from less new infections will be in the millions and will far outweigh the cost of extra medication.” The NZAF notes that New Zealand has been moving towards removing the threshold for accessing HIV medications for over a year. An expert panel has recommended to the government drug funding agency PHARMAC that the CD4 threshold be removed but so far this has not been given a high priority. “It is time to act with urgency and get rid of the barriers to HIV treatment,”Robinson says.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 2nd October 2015 - 10:32am