At least 20 percent of all AIDS deaths can be averted through a new treatment model.
Researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institute said this will save the lives of about 7,000 Kenyans annually, out of the total 36,000 who die from HIV-related complications in this period.
The model involves screening HIV positive people regularly for diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and TB, and promptly giving care for the conditions.
The researchers, who included KEMRI's chief research officer Prof Elizabeth Bukusi, sampled more than 350,000 adults and children in rural Kenya and Uganda.
They placed them into two groups: intervention and control, and followed them for three years.
The intervention group received health education, screenings for multiple chronic diseases and TB, prompt care conditions detected and immediate placement on ARTs for those who tested positive for HIV.
“At the end of the three-year study, rates of deaths from any cause among people living with HIV in the intervention communities were 21 percent lower than in communities receiving standard care,” says the report presented by Bukusi and other researchers at the International Aids Society meeting in Amsterdam last week.
The 'Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health Study' also shows that HIV positive people in the intervention group experienced 59 percent fewer new TB cases compared to the standard care communities.
In standard care, people living with HIV do not necessarily receive advance testing for the myriad of diseases they might develop.
“These findings suggest that a multi-disease community approach to testing and treating HIV can have a broad impact on overall community health extending beyond HIV to mortality, TB and other important non-communicable diseases,” said Edwin Charlebois, vice-chair of the study.
The research outcomes exceeded international HIV testing and treatment goals set by UNAIDS, which call for 90 percent of people living with HIV to be diagnosed, 90 percent of those diagnosed to be on ARTs and 90 percent of those on treatment undergoing viral suppression by 2020.
If met, the 90-90-90 targets would result in 73 per cent of people living with HIV undergoing viral suppression, which is
the reduction of HIV in a patient’s blood to an undetectable level.
This prevents it from being sexually transmitted.
In the study intervention communities, population-level viral suppression was 80 percent, surpassing the 90-90-90 target of 73 percent.
Standard care communities approached the target with 68 percent of community members living with HIV being suppressed. The reduction in HIV infections over the course of the study was similar between intervention and standard care communities.
The National Aids Control Council says at least 36,000 Kenyans succumb to HIV-related complications every year.
Amid the quest to eradicate the disease, a new kit that can accurately measure the HIV load in the blood within one hour has been launched.
M-Pima was launched last week at the Amsterdam conference and is expected to help thousands of Kenyans living with the virus to choose the right treatment.
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