HIV treatment vs prevention

The debate: Prevention versus Treatment

Historically, there was a debate about whether to place more emphasis (e.g., resources) on HIV Prevention as opposed to Treatment. The debate was influenced by ethical, political, economic, social, and clinical issues. For this assignment, collect information as it relates to your group  and develop your arguments to support your position.

Position 1 (pro): More resources should be placed on HIV prevention in order to prevent new infections.

Position 2 (con): More resources should be placed on HIV treatment in order to treat people already infected.

Answer the following questions.

1. What points were most persuasive and least in your debate weighing whether to focus resources on prevention vs treatment? (200 words)
2. With so much money going towards finding new preventions, what can be done to continue helping reduce the effects of those living HIV-positive? (100 words)
3. Would there be a different set of considerations for low income vs high income countries? (100 words)
4. How does your argument change considering the current use of treatment AS a form of prevention and PrEP (100 words)
• Treatment as prevention means that getting the viral load (amount of virus in the blood) down to undetectable levels is actually an effective way to prevent the transmission of the virus
• To read about Treatment as Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/art/index.html (Links to an external site.)
• Anti-retroviral medications that were once used only as a form of treatment, are now used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).  (Links to an external site.)
• To read about PrEP: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/prep/index.html