Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner, recently proposed a groundbreaking policy toward eradicating HIV in the area if city doctors adhere to his recommendation. According to Farley's aggressive proposal, doctors should treat HIV immediately after it is diagnosed. This measure would significantly reduce the transmission of HIV, which also causes AIDS, so much so that Farley believes new transmissions could potentially be unheard of in his lifetime (Hartocollis).
"I am more now than I've ever been about this epidemic that we can drive our new rates down to zero or close to it - eventually. I don't know how soon. But I'm very optimistic of the direction that it's going to take the epidemic to," Dr. Farley said (The Washington Post). .
Currently, doctors are not required to administer drugs until a patient's T-cell count drops below 500. Many patients choose not to take the drug until their conditions worsen to this point because antiretroviral drugs are believed to sometimes cause side effects such as nausea, liver damage, abnormal distribution of body fat, or heart disease. Doctors are unsure of whether the drugs cause these side effects or whether the disease itself inflicts these pains as it worsens. Because of these harsh consequences of the drug, federal panelists cannot come to a general consensus on whether immediate treatment should be required (Hartocollis).
Recent studies have emerged that convinced Farley of the usefulness of antiretroviral drugs, citing that they help to prolong healthy lives and are 96 percent effective in cutting HIV transmission from an infected partner to an uninfected partner. New York City would be the second city in the nation to adopt such aggressive measures, following San Francisco who began early treatment of HIV in 2010. Like in San Francisco, doctors in New York City probably already begin treatment early, but there are no official guidelines that enforce it, said Dr.
