Is long-acting HIV treatment as good as taking daily pills?
BOBBY RAMAKANT - CNS
Dr Jurgen Rockstroh receives ASI Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 from Gujarat Chief Minister Mr Patel and ASI Emeritus President Dr Gilada
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Treatment for people living with HIV (antiretroviral therapy) is lifesaving and revolutionary as it has made HIV akin to any other chronic disease. It has been proven that those who are on treatment and remain virally suppressed, live healthy and normal lifespans - comparable to those without the virus - and there is zero risk of any further HIV transmission from them.
But oral HIV treatment has to be taken daily without fail. This could be challenging given the fact that HIV treatment is lifelong.
Recently, long-acting injectable treatment options have been proven to be as effective as the daily oral therapy. However, a very small number of those on long-acting options reported virological failure (and higher risk of HIV virus developing resistance against HIV medicine, also referred to as drug-resistance or antimicrobial resistance/AMR).
But is the long-acting therapy for everyone?
A lot of such questions were answered by Dr Jurgen Kurt Rockstroh, Head of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University Hospital Bonn in Germany. Dr Jurgen has earlier served as the Chairperson of German AIDS Society, and President of European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) too. He gave a plenary talk at the 16th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2025) in Ahmedabad, India. Dr Jurgen was conferred upon the ASI Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel and Dr Ishwar Gilada, Emeritus President, ASI and Governing Council member of International AIDS Society (IAS).
Antiretroviral therapy is lifesaving, revolutionised HIV care
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