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. 2014 Feb 12;9(2):e87872.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087872. eCollection 2014.

Expansion of HAART coverage is associated with sustained decreases in HIV/AIDS morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission: the "HIV Treatment as Prevention" experience in a Canadian setting

Julio S G Montaner  1 , Viviane D Lima  1 , P Richard Harrigan  1 , Lillian Lourenço  2 , Benita Yip  2 , Bohdan Nosyk  3 , Evan Wood  1 , Thomas Kerr  1 , Kate Shannon  1 , David Moore  1 , Robert S Hogg  3 , Rolando Barrios  4 , Mark Gilbert  5 , Mel Krajden  5 , Reka Gustafson  6 , Patricia Daly  6 , Perry Kendall  7
Affiliations

Expansion of HAART coverage is associated with sustained decreases in HIV/AIDS morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission: the "HIV Treatment as Prevention" experience in a Canadian setting

Julio S G Montaner et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: There has been renewed call for the global expansion of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) under the framework of HIV treatment as prevention (TasP). However, population-level sustainability of this strategy has not been characterized.

Methods: We used population-level longitudinal data from province-wide registries including plasma viral load, CD4 count, drug resistance, HAART use, HIV diagnoses, AIDS incidence, and HIV-related mortality. We fitted two Poisson regression models over the study period, to relate estimated HIV incidence and the number of individuals on HAART and the percentage of virologically suppressed individuals.

Results: HAART coverage, median pre-HAART CD4 count, and HAART adherence increased over time and were associated with increasing virological suppression and decreasing drug resistance. AIDS incidence decreased from 6.9 to 1.4 per 100,000 population (80% decrease, p = 0.0330) and HIV-related mortality decreased from 6.5 to 1.3 per 100,000 population (80% decrease, p = 0.0115). New HIV diagnoses declined from 702 to 238 cases (66% decrease; p = 0.0004) with a consequent estimated decline in HIV incident cases from 632 to 368 cases per year (42% decrease; p = 0.0003). Finally, our models suggested that for each increase of 100 individuals on HAART, the estimated HIV incidence decreased 1.2% and for every 1% increase in the number of individuals suppressed on HAART, the estimated HIV incidence also decreased by 1%.

Conclusions: Our results show that HAART expansion between 1996 and 2012 in BC was associated with a sustained and profound population-level decrease in morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission. Our findings support the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of HIV treatment as prevention within an adequately resourced environment with no financial barriers to diagnosis, medical care or antiretroviral drugs. The 2013 Consolidated World Health Organization Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines offer a unique opportunity to further evaluate TasP in other settings, particularly within generalized epidemics, and resource-limited setting, as advocated by UNAIDS.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: This study received limited unrestricted funding from Abbvie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, Merck and ViiV Healthcare. The funding provided by the commercial sources has been directed to the institution and not to the investigators. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Number and rate of AIDS and death (HIV-related) cases by calendar year, 1996–2011.
AIDS: data for AIDS defining illness reported by the BC Centre for Disease Control, based on the first AIDS-defining illness reported for each person. Denominator for rates was BC population counts based on Statistics Canada estimates during 1996–2011.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Distribution of baseline CD4 cell count by year of therapy initiation, 1996–2012.
Calendar year (horizontal axis) refers to the year when antiretroviral therapy was first started.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Distribution of individuals’ adherence to antiretrovirals by calendar year, 1996–2012.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Distribution of HIV drug resistance among individuals with unsuppressed viral load by calendar year, 1996–2012.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Selected HIV epidemic indicators for British Columbia by calendar year, 1996–2012.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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