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HIV treatment, namely antiretroviral therapy (ART), is effective in suppressing HIV viral load levels in people living with HIV (PLHIV). Those who are on ART can stay virally suppressed with minimal risk of transmitting HIV to others. This approach underlines the principle of "treatment-as-prevention" (TasP). Yet, having ART available is not enough to slow down virus spread if HIV awareness and ART initiation rates are low. Recent UNAIDS data showed that the number of countries with over 75% of PLHIV (undiagnosed and diagnosed) who are virally suppressed was still remarkably low in year 2019. These countries are marked light yellow in the map.

On top of that, coverage of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), another HIV biomedical prevention measure, deserves attention. On the same map, the number of PrEP users in each country is shown by the size of blue circles - a bigger circle indicates a greater number of users in the country. Among countries with available data, PrEP seemed to be more popular in the United States, while Namibia and Zambia in Africa, Thailand in Asia and Australia had higher number of PrEP users. These same countries also had over 75% of PLHIV virally suppressed. Some countries with lower proportion of viral suppression had few PrEP users, and such data are generally lacking.

Despite the availability of ART and PrEP, the progress to end HIV cannot stop here. It is crucial to monitor both viral load suppression level and PrEP coverage so that better policies can be tailor-made to fit the needs of each country. It is important to ensure good HIV control by reducing transmission through suppressing viral load level of infected persons, and at the same time protecting HIV negative population from being infected. Reaching sustained viral suppression level and increasing PrEP coverage are therefore the key strategies to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

Data for the map were extracted from UNAIDS and PrEPWatch

抗逆轉錄病毒療法(ART)是治療愛滋病毒感染的主要方案，能有效壓制感染者體內的病毒載量，從而大幅降低感染者傳播病毒的風險。這種方案是建基於『治療達致防疫』的原則。然而，儘管有這療法，如果只有小部分感染者知道自己受感染，並且治療率低的話，則不足以減慢愛滋病毒的傳播。根據聯合國愛滋病規劃署的資料，至2019年為止，愛滋病毒感染者（包括已診斷和未診斷）病毒壓制率達至75%以上的國家為數仍然不多。這些國家在地圖上以淺黃色表示。

除此之外，事前預防用藥(PrEP)是另一種生物醫學防控愛滋病毒感染措施 ，其覆蓋率也值得關注。在地圖上，PrEP 使用者人數以藍圈大小標示：越大面積的藍圈代表該國家有越多PrEP使用者。 明顯地，PrEP在美國比較普及，而非洲的納米比亞和贊比亞、亞洲的泰國和澳洲亦有較多PrEP 使用者。這些國家同樣地達至75%以上病毒壓制率。在一些病毒壓制率較低的國家，使用PrEP 預防愛滋病病毒傳播並不普遍，而且有關PrEP 使用者的數據也是相當有限。

迄今為止，即使抗逆轉錄病毒療法和PrEP方面已有顯著進展，防控的進程也不能就此鬆懈。我們必須監控愛滋病毒壓制率和PrEP覆蓋率等數據，才能幫助各地政府計劃最適合當地的愛滋病防控政策。使用抗病毒藥物減低感染者的傳染率，並同時保護未感染者免受感染，才能保證愛滋病毒在未來受控不再蔓延。要在2030年結束愛滋病毒的流行，提高病毒壓制率和PrEP 使用率是目前最關鍵的策略。

地圖資料源自聯合國愛滋病規劃署及PrEPWatch