Global screening scheme ‘could rid world of Aids within 40 years’

A GLOBAL mass-population screening programme could rid the world of the scourge of Aids within 40 years, it was claimed.

Testing most of the world’s population for HIV, then treating those found to be infected would halt transmission of the virus by 2015, says South African expert Professor Brian Williams.

By 2050, when a large proportion of HIV carriers undergoing treatment will have died, the epidemic would effectively be over, he argues. The price would be enormous, costing around £2 billion (€2.3bn) in South Africa alone. But this would be offset by eradicating the massive disease burden of HIV/Aids, and saving the lives of productive, working-age individuals, Prof Williams believes.

He told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: “The problem is we’re now using HIV drugs to save people’s lives; we’re not using them to stop transmission.

“Can we use anti-retroviral drugs not only to keep people alive but also to stop transmission? I believe we can. I believe we can effectively stop transmission within five years.”

He said the idea had growing support from other experts. Feasibility studies based on small high-risk communities were already under way in the US, Canada and sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof Williams, who founded the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, is setting up a key trial in his home country at Hlabisa.

This will be the first study comparing two groups selected at random, one of which will undergo whole population screening.

HIV/Aids is “one of the worst plagues in human history and is killing half a million young adults every year”, said Prof Williams.

Around 30 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and the virus threatens to claim two million lives each year, he said.

HIV prevalence varied greatly, ranging from less than 0.1% in northern India to more than 20% in parts of southern Africa.

Attempts to develop an effective HIV vaccine had failed so far, as had efforts to promote behavioural changes such as safe sex.