'Sex habits slowing Aids down'
2005-03-15 17:22
Washington - Changes in sexual behavior helped more to slow the spread of HIV in the early 1990s than the ensuing introduction of Aids therapy drugs, revealed a study published on Monday.
The British study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was done by University College London (UCL), Health Protection Agency and Oxford University scientists, who led a statistical analysis of the HIV-1 virus in Britain.
"Since 1990, there have been important changes in Britain's social attitudes and awareness of HIV-1 and Aids," wrote Dr Deenan Pillay of UCL.
"Despite a recent increase in high-risk behaviour among men having sex with men, a significant increase in condom use has been reported since 1990, which could explain the equilibrium reached for the number of infections.
Six larger sub-epidemics
"Antiretroviral therapy may also have an impact on transmission rates, but our evidence does not demonstrate this," said Pillay.
Unlike what was generally believed about the Aids pandemic in Britain, evidence in the study was found for "at least six larger sub-epidemics", contradicting "assumptions that the HIV-1 pandemic was composed of smaller, independent epidemics defined by risk group".
The HIV-1 is the most-common form worldwide of the Aids virus, which falls into three groups - M, N and O, according to different genetic characteristics, and HIV-2 is the other form of the virus.