Antiretroviral therapy has transformed HIV to a chronic - though still incurable - virus requiring ongoing therapy and strict adherence to treatment. For the most part, virally suppressed people living with HIV today have no difference in life expectancy than demographically similar HIV-negative individuals (Sabin, 2013 cited in Justice and Falutz, 2014; Maman et al. 2012a).
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Antiretroviral medication has been successfully used in a number of ways: first and foremost to treat those with high viral load and diminishing CD4 counts; secondly to prevent vertical transmission of HIV from pregnant and breastfeeding women to their infants; third, as a prophylactic for those who have been exposed to HIV occupationally or through sexual assault (post-exposure prophylaxis, PE...
Antiretroviral treatment (ART) for women living with HIV is vital to ensuring safe motherhood and reducing vertical transmission. But not all pregnant women access treatment. For women in high-income countries where access to triple therapy during pregnancy has been the standard of care and is near universal, rates of vertical HIV transmission are as low as 0.4%, for example, in Canada (Forbes ...