2023-07-24 10:11:35
40 years following the discovery of HIV, the “Inner Sydney” district might become the first place in the world where the virus is no longer transmitted.
A Sydney neighborhood, once the epicenter of Australia’s HIV epidemic, is set to become the first place in the world where the virus is no longer being transmitted, researchers said on Monday.
The joint United Nations program on HIV, UNAIDS, aims to end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. This involves reducing the number of new HIV cases by 90% by the end of the decade, compared to 2010.
“We are almost there”
In one area of central Sydney (“Inner Sydney”), new infections among gay men fell by 88% between 2010 and 2022, researchers announced at the International AIDS Society’s HIV Science Conference being held in Brisbane, Australia, July 23-26.
“We are almost there,” almost eight years ahead of the UNAIDS target, said Andrew Grulich, an epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales.
Only 11 new cases of HIV were recorded in this district last year, “an extraordinarily low number for a place which was at the heart of the Australian epidemic of HIV”, judge Andrew Grulich.
“Vaccine”
It is estimated that more than 20% of men are gay in this area including suburban Darlinghurst and they represent the vast majority of HIV cases in the city.
Several parts of the UK and Western Europe have also seen rapid declines in new HIV cases. But “I don’t believe any place has achieved a similar drop of nearly 90%,” says Prof Grulich. However, this does not mean that HIV is on the verge of being eliminated in this city of 5.2 million people, he added.
“HIV can only be eradicated if we have a vaccine and a treatment.”
“More than exciting”
And the decline in new HIV cases has been much less steep in other parts of Sydney. Thus, in the more remote suburbs of the city, new cases have only decreased by 31% since 2010, the researchers found.
This disparity is due to a much higher rate of HIV testing and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which reduces the risk of HIV transmission during sex, in the inner city, according to the epidemiologist.
For Sharon Lewin, president of the International AIDS Society, this progress is “more than exciting”. “It means that Australia is on the verge of being one of the first countries, if not the first, to achieve virtual elimination of HIV,” she said in a statement.
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