A days treatment of ARV, each pill now only costs 50 cents.

(Johannesburg)  UNAIDS has launched a simpler, more cost-effective approach to HIV treatment, aimed at simultaneously achieving two holy grails of the AIDS response: drastic reductions in AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections.

The approach, dubbed "Treatment 2.0", aims to drastically scale up testing and treatment using current best practices and future innovations in antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and diagnostics. The prevention benefits of extending treatment to all those in need of it are based on mounting evidence that people on ARV treatment are much less likely to transmit the virus.

UNAIDS estimates that successful implementation of Treatment 2.0 could avert 10 million deaths by 2025, and reduce new infections by one-third.

A report on the new strategy has been released ahead of the International AIDS Conference, starting on 18 July in Vienna, where one of the hot topics will be why most countries will fail to meet the goals of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by the December 2010 deadline.

Read the full article on plusnews.org.

Photo Credit: Kate Holt/IRIN