THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of HIV infection declined significantly in Uganda between 1999 and 2016, according to a study published in the Nov. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
M. Kate Grabowski, Ph.D., from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the correlation between the incidence of HIV and the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and medical male circumcision in Uganda. Data were obtained from 30 communities for 33,937 individuals aged 15 to 49 years.
The researchers found that ART was introduced in 2004, and coverage was 69 percent by 2016 (72 percent among women and 61 percent among men). Among all HIV-positive persons, HIV viral-load suppression increased from 42 percent in 2009 to 75 percent by 2016 (P < 0.001). From 1999 to 2016 there was an increase in male circumcision (from 15 to 59 percent; P < 0.001). During this time period there was an increase in the percentage of adolescents who reported never having initiated sex (from 30 to 55 percent; P < 0.001). The mean incidence of HIV infection decreased by 42 percent by 2016, relative to the period before 2006, from 1.17 to 0.66 cases per 100 person-years (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 0.58).
"The incidence of HIV infection declined significantly with the scale-up of a combination strategy for HIV prevention, which provides empirical evidence that interventions for HIV prevention can have a population-level effect," the authors write.
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