ASIA/TAIWAN - Free antiretroviral therapy: Taiwan government policy appears successful. Annual average rate of new cases of HIV drops from 0.391 to 0.184

Rome (Fides Service) - Thanks to the Taiwan government’s decision to give HIV+ patients free access to antiretroviral therapy or HAART, the rate of transmission of the virus has dropped by 53 per cent. Recent research shows that HAART not only prolongs the life of persons infected it also reduces the rate of mother/child and heterosexual transmission of the virus.
Researchers at the National Taiwan University tried to ascertain whether widespread use of HAART reduces HIV transmission in a population.
Despite the high cost of HAART and difficulty encountered in identifying HIV infected persons in the early stage without symptoms, the researchers agree that Taiwan is an excellent laboratory for this type of research.
Like many other countries, Taiwan was first affected by HIV in the mid 1980s. In 1989 the government set up a system to monitor the infection at a national level. Since 1997 all citizens who apply receive free access to antiretroviral therapy, HAART.
Using methods of mathematics and statistics analysis the experts calculated the rate of HIV transmission before the adoption of the free access policy (1990 to 1997) and in the years since (1997 to 2002), and found that the annual average rate dropped from 0.391 to 0.184 new cases. (AP) (7/8/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:24; Parole:265)