AIDS treatment could fuel pandemic - authorities

Ugandan health officials are concerned that increased access to anti-AIDS drugs is encouraging risky sexual behaviour among HIV-positive people.

The commissioner for planning in the Ministry of Health, Dr Francis Runumi, said he suspected that some people were engaging in unprotected sex as antiretrovirals (ARVs) improved their health and AIDS-related symptoms became less burdensome.

A local newspaper, New Vision, quoted Runumi as saying: "ARVs eliminate most symptoms, such as skin rash, and help the patients put on weight. Some people, however, have exploited this to indulge in unprotected sex, transmitting the virus in the process."

In their latest report, 'HIV Prevention in the Era of Expanded Treatment', the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, a panel of experts convened by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation, warned that readily available treatments usually also led to increased risky sexual behaviour, as people became more complacent about the dangers of infection.