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Immediate, aggressive spending on HIV/AIDS could end epidemic
17-Nov-2009 - Money available to treat HIV/AIDS is sufficient to end the epidemic globally,
but only if we act immediately to control the spread of the disease. That was the conclusion of a study just published in
the open-access journal, BMC Public Health. This approach defies conventional thinking, which recommends gradual spending over
15-20 years. Canadian Researchers found that an aggressive program over five years is the only way to end the epidemic given our
current resources. The study, part of a supplement on "The OptAIDS project: towards global halting of HIV/AIDS," was based on a
leading-edge mathematical model developed by mathematicians and biologists, who recently earned acclaim for a study on how best to
handle a planetary invasion by zombies.
Professor Robert J. Smith? and his team from the University of Ottawa, as well as researchers from York University
and the University of Manitoba, developed the mathematical model to examine how best to eliminate HIV/AIDS worldwide, given the large amounts
of money that have been committed to fighting the disease. They found that the $60 billion currently committed to fighting HIV/AIDS might suffice
to end the epidemic globally. However, spending this money over the proposed 15-20 years will almost certainly fail, given the ability of HIV/AIDS
to spread through travel and migration.
Recent scientific advances combined with education campaigns and condoms have been very effective in reducing the
incidence of the disease in many countries and regions. However, the incidence of infection is still on the rise in many countries too. Over an
extended timeframe of 15-20 years, travel and immigration will make it impossible to contain the disease to these regions. As a result, they predict
that the spread of the disease will continue to outpace treatment.
This breakthrough finding was the culmination of numerous international studies looking at how epidemics spread globally,
the infrastructure required to contain epidemics, how different countries are managing the disease, and the resources required to manage the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, under the OptAIDS project umbrella.
"The OptAIDS project grew out of a frustration with existing attempts to tackle the disease," says Professor Smith? "HIV/AIDS
is mostly addressed at a community or national level, when it needs to be tackled globally."
The team is now working to develop a model for how best to spend existing resources in the developing world to contain the disease before
it spreads beyond our reach.
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Notes to Editors:
1. The question mark after the author's name is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake
2. The OptAIDS project: towards global halting of HIV/AIDS
Research and reviews
Supplement editor: Robert Smith?
BMC Public Health (in press)
During embargo, articles available upon request at
charlotte.webber@biomedcentral.com
After the embargo, published articles available at the journal website:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpublichealth/
Please name the journal in any story you write.
If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Article citation and URL available on request at press@biomedcentral.com on the day of publication
3. BMC Public Health is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in the epidemiology of disease and
the understanding of all aspects of public health. The journal has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental,
behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the
community. BMC Public Health (ISSN 1471-2458) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE, Current Contents,
Thomson Reuters (ISI) and Google Scholar.
4. BioMed Central
(http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine)
publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are
made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of
Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.
CONTACT:
Charlotte Webber
charlotte.webber@biomedcentral.com
44-203-192-2129
BioMed Central
Source: EurekAlert
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/bc-ias111609.php
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