Updated HIV therapy guidelines endorsed

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 9 (UPI) -- Canadian scientists say they've determined adherence to updated HIV therapy guidelines would result in increased benefits for patients and society in general.

Researchers from the British Columbia Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the University of British Columbia say their mathematical modeling study of the 2008 International AIDS Society-USA therapy guidelines for treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus shows full implementation would lead to more people entering treatment, an increase in lives saved, billions of dollars in costs averted and a significant decrease in infections.

"The study results are critically important because they reinforce the significant individual and societal benefits of starting earlier HIV treatment and provide further momentum for treatment as prevention, which, in the absence of a vaccine or cure, remains the best way to contain and halt the spread of HIV," said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the center.

The research appears in the online journal PLoS One.