new research hiv

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

• Virtual Tour
• Staff Directory
• En Español

You are here

Research & training, advances in hiv/aids research.

For an update on what medical science is doing to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, read a Parade article by NIH Director Francis S. Collins and NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, AIDS in 2010: How We're Living with HIV .

Over the past several decades, researchers have learned a lot about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the disease it causes, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). But still more research is needed to help the millions of people whose health continues to be threatened by the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

At the National Institutes of Health, the HIV/AIDS research effort is led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). A vast network of NIAID-supported scientists, located on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and at research centers around the globe, are exploring new ways to prevent and treat HIV infection, as well as to better understand the virus with the goal of finding a cure. For example, in recent months, NIAID and its partners made progress toward finding a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. Check out other promising areas of NIAID-funded research on HIV/AIDS at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/hivaids/Pages/Default.aspx .

Other NIH institutes, including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, also support research to better control and ultimately end the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some of these researchers have found a simple, cost-effective way to cut HIV transmission from infected mothers to their breastfed infants. Others have developed an index to help measure the role of alcohol consumption in illness and death of people with HIV/AIDS.

Find out more about these discoveries and what they mean for improving the health of people in the United States and all around the globe.

This page last reviewed on August 20, 2015

Connect with Us

• More Social Media from NIH

• Fact sheets
• Facts in pictures
• Publications
• Questions and answers
• Tools and toolkits
• HIV and AIDS
• Hypertension
• Mental disorders
• Top 10 causes of death
• All countries
• Eastern Mediterranean
• South-East Asia
• Western Pacific
• Data by country
• Country presence 
• Country strengthening 
• Country cooperation strategies 
• News releases
• Feature stories
• Press conferences
• Commentaries
• Photo library
• Afghanistan
• Cholera 
• Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
• Greater Horn of Africa
• Israel and occupied Palestinian territory
• Disease Outbreak News
• Situation reports
• Weekly Epidemiological Record
• Surveillance
• Health emergency appeal
• International Health Regulations
• Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee
• Classifications
• Data collections
• Global Health Estimates
• Mortality Database
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Health Inequality Monitor
• Global Progress
• Data collection tools
• Global Health Observatory
• Insights and visualizations
• COVID excess deaths
• World Health Statistics
• Partnerships
• Committees and advisory groups
• Collaborating centres
• Technical teams
• Organizational structure
• Initiatives
• General Programme of Work
• WHO Academy
• Investment in WHO
• WHO Foundation
• External audit
• Financial statements
• Internal audit and investigations 
• Programme Budget
• Results reports
• Governing bodies
• World Health Assembly
• Executive Board
• Member States Portal

New WHO guidance on HIV viral suppression and scientific updates released at IAS 2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new scientific and normative guidance on HIV at the 12 th International IAS (the International AIDS Society) Conference on HIV Science .

New WHO guidance and an accompanying Lancet systematic review released today describe the role of HIV viral suppression and undetectable levels of virus in both improving individual health and halting onward HIV transmission. The guidance describes key HIV viral load thresholds and the approaches to measure levels of virus against these thresholds; for example, people living with HIV who achieve an undetectable level of virus by consistent use of antiretroviral therapy, do not transmit HIV to their sexual partner(s) and are at low risk of transmitting HIV vertically to their children. The evidence also indicates that there is negligible, or almost zero, risk of transmitting HIV when a person has a HIV viral load measurement of less than or equal to 1000 copies per mL, also commonly referred to as having a suppressed viral load.

Antiretroviral therapy continues to transform the lives of people living with HIV. People living with HIV who are diagnosed and treated early, and take their medication as prescribed, can expect to have the same health and life expectancy as their HIV-negative counterparts.

“For more than 20 years, countries all over the world have relied on WHO’s evidence-based guidelines to prevent, test for and treat HIV infection,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The new guidelines we are publishing today will help countries to use powerful tools have the potential to transform the lives of millions of people living with or at risk of HIV.”

At the end of 2022, 29.8 million of the 39 million people living with HIV were taking antiretroviral treatment (which means 76% of all people living with HIV) with almost three-quarters of them (71%) living with suppressed HIV. This means that for those virally suppressed their health is well protected and they are not at risk of transmitting HIV to other people. While this is a very positive progress for adults living with HIV, viral load suppression in children living with HIV is only 46% - a reality that needs urgent attention.

Here is an overview of other key scientific and normative updates being released by WHO at IAS 2023 conference:

HIV and mpox

An analysis of global surveillance data reported to WHO during the multi-country outbreak of mpox, identified that among more than 82 000 mpox cases, around 32 000 cases had information on HIV status. Among those, 52% were living with HIV, most being men who have sex with men (MSM); and more than 80% reported sex as the most probable route of getting infected with mpox.

Among 16 000 people diagnosed with mpox and living with HIV, around one quarter (25%) had advanced HIV disease or immunosuppression – leading to an increased risk of hospitalization and death. People living with HIV who were taking HIV treatment and with good immunity had similar hospitalization and death outcomes as those who were HIV negative.

In the light of these findings, WHO recommends countries integrate mpox detection, prevention, and care with existing and innovative HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention and control programmes.

To understand how to better prepare for and respond to future increases in mpox transmission, WHO led a rapid electronic survey in May 2023 to assess community experiences of the 2022-2023 mpox outbreak in Europe and the Americas.

More than 24 000 people participated in the survey which focused on men who have sex with men, and trans and gender-diverse people, with 16 875 eligible individuals completing the survey. Almost 51% changed their sexual behaviour (such as reducing the number of sexual partners), and 35% had maintained these changes one year later. Findings from this survey provide valuable insights into the experiences and needs of affected communities and emphasize the importance of increasing access to mpox vaccination and diagnostics globally.

HIV and COVID-19

An updated analysis from WHO global clinical platform for COVID-19 up through May 2023 revealed a persistent high risk of death in people living with HIV hospitalized for COVID-19 across pre-Delta, Delta and Omicron variant waves, with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 20%-24%. For people without HIV, the risk of death fell during the Omicron variant wave by 53%—55% compared to pre-Delta and Delta variant waves; but for people living with HIV, the percentage decline in mortality during the Omicron wave period compared to the other waves was modest (16%-19%). This difference resulted in a 142 times increased risk of death among people living with HIV when compared with people without HIV during the Omicron wave period. 

Risk factors for in-hospital death that were common across all variant waves of the pandemic were low CD4 count (less than 200 cells per m3), and severe or critical COVID-19 illness at hospital admission.

“Uncontrolled HIV remains a risk factor for poor outcomes and death in the mpox outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic”, said Dr Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes. "We must ensure the integration of HIV considerations in pandemic preparedness and response. Protecting people living with HIV from future pandemics is vital and reinforces the need to ensure access to HIV testing and treatment and preventive vaccines for mpox and COVID-19 to save lives; community-led responses that work for HIV will also be beneficial for addressing future pandemics."

Optimizing HIV testing services through expanded testing options and simplified service delivery

With new recommendations on HIV testing , WHO is calling on countries to expand use of HIV self-testing and promote testing through sexual and social networks to increase testing coverage and strengthen uptake of HIV prevention and treatment services in high-burden settings and in regions with the greatest gaps in testing coverage.

The recommendation comes at a pivotal time, where self-care and self-testing are increasingly being recognized as ways to increase access, efficiency, effectiveness and acceptability of health care across many different disease areas, including HIV.

Primary health care and HIV

A new policy framework on primary health care (PHC) and HIV will help decision-makers optimize work and collaboration underway to advance primary health care and disease-specific responses, including HIV. In the second year of implementation, the Global Health Sector Strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections for 2022-2030 actively advocate for synergies within the framework of universal health coverage and primary health care.

“Ending AIDS is impossible without optimizing opportunities across and within health systems, including with communities and in the context of primary health care”, said Dr Jérôme Salomon, WHO Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases.

This latest research and guidance are being presented at a time when progress towards ending the global AIDS epidemic has lagged, after the COVID-19 pandemic; but the response is rapidly catching up, with some countries now charting a path to end AIDS , including Australia, Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe and 16 other countries that are close to reaching the 95-95-95 global targets, which aim for 95% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 95% of those diagnosed receiving ART and 95% of those on treatment having suppressed viral loads.

Note to the editor:

12th IAS Conference on HIV Science

The IAS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science will be held in Brisbane from 23 to 26 July 2023. This biennial conference presents the critical advances in basic, clinical and operational HIV research that move science into policy and practice.

For more detailed information on WHO at the conference, visit: https://who.int/news-room/events/detail/2023/07/23/default-calendar/who-at-ias-conference-2023

Media Contacts

WHO Media Team

World Health Organization

• Alzheimer's disease & dementia
• Arthritis & Rheumatism
• Attention deficit disorders
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Biomedical technology
• Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
• Endocrinology & Metabolism
• Gastroenterology
• Gerontology & Geriatrics
• Health informatics
• Inflammatory disorders
• Medical economics
• Medical research
• Medications
• Neuroscience
• Obstetrics & gynaecology
• Oncology & Cancer
• Ophthalmology
• Overweight & Obesity
• Parkinson's & Movement disorders
• Psychology & Psychiatry
• Radiology & Imaging
• Sleep disorders
• Sports medicine & Kinesiology
• Vaccination
• Breast cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Colon cancer
• Coronary artery disease
• Heart attack
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Kidney disease
• Lung cancer
• Multiple sclerosis
• Myocardial infarction
• Ovarian cancer
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Schizophrenia
• Skin cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Full List »

share this!

June 24, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

reputable news agency

Twice-a-year injection gives women full protection against HIV, trial finds

by Robin Foster

Just two injections a year of a new HIV drug protected young women in Africa from infection with the sexually transmitted disease, new trial results show.

In announcing the findings, Gilead Sciences Inc. said its HIV medication lenacapavir demonstrated 100% efficacy as a preventive treatment.

This is the first round of data generated from Gilead's PURPOSE program, a collection of five HIV prevention trials that are being conducted around the world, the company noted.

"With zero infections and 100% efficacy, twice-yearly lenacapavir has demonstrated its potential as an important new tool to help prevent HIV infections," Gilead Chief Medical Officer Dr. Merdad Parsey, said in a news release announcing the results.

"We look forward to additional results from the ongoing PURPOSE clinical program and continuing toward our goal of helping to end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere."

The randomized controlled trial of lenacapavir, conducted in Uganda and South Africa, tested whether two injections of lenacapavir a year would provide better protection against HIV infection than two other daily pills widely used in high-income countries.

The results with lenacapavir were so convincing the trial was halted early after an independent data review committee said all participants should be offered the injection because it clearly provided superior protection against the virus, Gilead said.

None of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV, while 16 of the 1,068 women who took Truvada, a daily pill that has been available for more than a decade, and 39 of 2,136 women who got a newer daily pill called Descovy were infected.

"For a young woman who can't get to an appointment at a clinic in a town, a young woman who can't keep pills without facing stigma or violence—an injection just twice a year is the option that could keep her free of HIV," Lillian Mworeko, who leads a group called the International Community of Women Living With HIV Eastern Africa, told the Times .

Still, the Gilead data has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. A second trial, conducted in six other countries, is testing lenacapavir in men who have sex with men, in transgender people and in those who use injection drugs, the company said. Midterm review of those results will take place later this year.

While Truvada has been widely used by gay men in the United States and other high-income countries for years, it has not been as effective in Africa, where use has been low, particularly among vulnerable young African women, the Times reported.

The hope is that a twice-a-year injection , which is far more convenient than taking daily pills, will prove to be a more powerful prevention tool in that country.

The remaining question is access: Gilead charges $42,250 per patient per year for lenacapavir in the United States, the Times reported.

However, Gilead has committed to quickly making large volumes of the drug available at "at prices that enable widespread availability" in low-income countries with high HIV incidence rates.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay . All rights reserved.

Explore further

Feedback to editors

New study shows alcohol rehabilitation and abstinence reduce the risk of alcohol-associated cancers

2 hours ago

Cardiovascular health could be biggest risk factor for future dementia rates

Majority of female cancer survivors at low risk of developing most obstetric complications

Tai chi reduces risk of inflammatory disease, treats insomnia among breast cancer survivors

4 hours ago

Study shows how liver damage from stress and aging might be reversible

New research tools reveal the dynamics behind breaking a sweat

5 hours ago

Bone stem cells with IFITM5 mutation get caught in a loop leading to osteogenesis imperfecta type V

Neuroscience research leverages stem cells to understand how neurons connect and communicate in the brain

Research uncovers 'molecular glue' that helps ensure memory formation and stabilization

7 hours ago

Children who spend more time in natural environments have significantly better mental health

9 hours ago

Related Stories

Pharma firm urged to share new 'game-changer' HIV drug

May 30, 2024

Lenacapavir reduces viral load in multidrug-resistant HIV-1 infection

May 12, 2022

Gilead, Merck team up to develop long-acting HIV drug

Mar 15, 2021

FDA approves treatment for multi-drug resistant HIV

Sep 1, 2023

An HIV drug you only take twice a year?

Jul 1, 2020

How a novel drug pushes the HIV capsid to breaking point

Feb 13, 2024

Recommended for you

New study finds medication abortion without ultrasound to be safe

Jun 24, 2024

Trial offers hope for cheaper, more tolerable, ketamine treatment

New approach accurately identifies medications most toxic to the liver

Q&A: How future medications could be personalized on a 3D printer

Common blood pressure drug may increase risk of bleeding

Jun 21, 2024

Study identifies first drug therapy for sleep apnea

Let us know if there is a problem with our content.

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Medical Xpress in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

After decades of failures, researchers have renewed hopes for an effective HIV vaccine

The world needs an HIV vaccine if it ever hopes to beat a virus that still infects over 1 million people a year and contributes to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Despite 20 years of failures in major HIV vaccine trials — four this decade alone — researchers say recent scientific advances have likely, hopefully, put them on the right track to develop a highly effective vaccine against the insidious virus.

But probably not until the 2030s. 

“An effective vaccine is really the only way to provide long-term immunity against HIV, and that’s what we need,” Dr. Julie McElrath, the director of the vaccine and infectious disease division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said Monday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver.

All current HIV vaccine action is in the laboratory, animal studies or very early human trials.

Researchers at the retrovirus conference presented favorable results from two HIV vaccine studies. One found that a modification to the simian version of HIV spurred production of what are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies against the virus in monkeys. Another showed promise in the effort to coax the immune system’s B cells to make the powerful antibodies in humans. 

“These trials illustrate as a proof of concept that we can train the immune system. But we need to further optimize it and test it in clinical trials,” Karlijn van der Straten, a Ph.D. student at the Academic Medical Center at Amsterdam University, who presented the human study, said at a news conference Monday.

Still, the scrappy scientists in this field face a towering challenge. HIV is perhaps the most complex pathogen ever known. 

“The whole field has learned from the past,” said William Schief, who leads Moderna’s HIV vaccine efforts. “We’ve learned strategies that don’t work.”

The cost has already been immense. Nearly $17 billion was spent worldwide on HIV -vaccine research from 2000 to 2021. Nearly $1 billion more is spent annually, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the nonprofit HIV group AVAC.

“Maintaining the funding for HIV vaccines right now is really important,” said Dr. Nina Russell, who directs HIV research at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She pointed to the field’s own “progress and the excitement” and to how “HIV vaccine science and scientists continue to drive innovation and science that benefits other infectious diseases and global health in general.” 

Case in point: Covid. Thanks to HIV research, the mRNA vaccine technology was already available in 2020 to speed a coronavirus vaccine to market.

Why the HIV vaccine efficacy trials failed

In strong contrast to Covid, the HIV vaccine endeavor has spanned four decades. Only one of the nine HIV vaccine trials have shown efficacy: a trial conducted in Thailand and published in 2009 that reported a modest 31% reduction in HIV risk.

HIV vaccine researchers subsequently spent years seeking to retool and improve that vaccine strategy, leading to a series of trials that launched in the late 2010s — only to fail.

Researchers have concluded those latest trials were doomed because, aside from prompting an anti-HIV response based in immune cells, they only drove the immune system to produce what are known as non-neutralizing antibodies. Those weapons just weren’t strong enough for such a fearsome foe.

Preventing HIV through vaccination remains a daunting challenge because the immune system doesn’t naturally mount an effective defense against the virus, as it does with so many other vaccine-preventable infections, including Covid. An HIV vaccine must coax from the body a supercharged immune response with no natural equivalent.

That path to victory is based on a crucial caveat: A small proportion of people with HIV do produce what are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies against the virus. They attack HIV in multiple ways and can neutralize a swath of variants of the virus.

Those antibodies don’t do much apparent good for people who develop them naturally, because they typically don’t arise until years into infection. HIV establishes a permanent reservoir in the body within about a week after infection, one that their immune response can’t eliminate. So HIV-positive people with such antibodies still require antiretroviral treatment to remain healthy.

Researchers believe that broadly neutralizing antibodies could prevent HIV from ever seeding an infection, provided the defense was ready in advance of exposure. A pair of major efficacy trials, published in 2021 , demonstrated that infusions of cloned versions of one such antibody did, indeed, protect people who were exposed to certain HIV strains that are susceptible to that antibody. 

However, globally, those particular strains of the virus comprise only a small subset of all circulating HIV. That means researchers can’t simply prompt a vaccine to produce that one antibody and expect it to be effective. Importantly, from this study they got a sense of what antibody level would be required to prevent infection. 

It’s a high benchmark, but at least investigators now have a clearer sense of the challenge before them. 

Also frustrating the HIV vaccine quest is that the virus mutates like mad. Whatever spot on the surface of the virus that antibodies target might be prone to change through mutation, thus allowing the virus to evade their attack. Consequently, researchers search for targets on the virus’ surface that aren’t highly subject to mutation.

Experts also believe warding off the mutation threat will require targeting multiple sites on the virus. So researchers are seeking to develop a portfolio of immune system prompts that would spur production of an array of broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Prompting the development of such antibodies requires a complex, step-by step process of coaxing the infection-fighting B cells, getting them to multiply and then guiding their maturation into potent broadly neutralizing antibody-producing factories.

HIV vaccine development ‘in a better place’

Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, the head of the AIDS division at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said numerous recent technological advances — including mRNA, better animal models of HIV infection and high-tech imaging technology — have improved researchers’ precision in designing, and speed in producing, new proteins to spur anti-HIV immune responses.

Global collaboration among major players is also flourishing, researchers said. There are several early-stage human clinical trials of HIV-vaccine components underway.

Three mRNA- based early human trials of such components have been launched since 2022. Among them, they have been led or otherwise funded by the global vaccine research nonprofit group IAVI, Fred Hutch, Moderna, Scripps Research, the Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and university teams. More such trials are in the works.

On Friday, Science magazine reported concerning recent findings that among the three mRNA trials, a substantial proportion of participants — 7% to 18%, IAVI said in a statement — experienced skin-related symptoms following injections, including hives, itching and welts.

IAVI said in its statement that it and partners are investigating the HIV trials’ skin-related outcomes, most of which were “mild or moderate and managed with simple allergy medications.” 

Researchers have shown success in one of those mRNA trials in executing a particular step in the B-cell cultivation process.

That vaccine component also generated “helper” CD4 cells primed to combat HIV. The immune cells are expected to operate like an orchestra conductor for the immune system, coordinating a response by sending instructions to B cells and scaling up other facets of an assault on HIV.

A complementary strategy under investigation seeks to promote the development of “killer” CD8 cells that might be primed to kill off any immune cells that the antibodies failed to save from infection.

Crucially, investigators believe they are now much better able to discern top vaccine component candidates from the duds. They plan to spend the coming years developing such components so that when they do assemble the most promising among them into a multi-pronged vaccine, they can be much more confident of ultimate success in a trial.

“An HIV vaccine could end HIV,” McElrath said at the Denver conference. “So I say, ‘Let’s just get on with it.”

Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, suggested that the first trial to test effectiveness of the vaccine might not launch until 2030 or later.

Even so, he was bullish.

“The field of HIV vaccine development is in a better place now than it’s ever been,” he said.

Benjamin Ryan is independent journalist specializing in science and LGBTQ coverage. He contributes to NBC News, The New York Times, The Guardian and Thomson Reuters Foundation and has also written for The Washington Post, The Nation, The Atlantic and New York.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

New Drug Provides Total Protection From H.I.V. in Trial of Young African Women

An injection given just twice a year could herald a breakthrough in protecting the population that has the highest infection rates.

By Stephanie Nolen

Stephanie Nolen has covered the global H.I.V. pandemic for more than 25 years.

Researchers and activists in the trenches of the long fight against H.I.V. got a rare piece of exciting news this week: Results from a large clinical trial in Africa showed that a twice-yearly injection of a new antiviral drug gave young women total protection from the virus.

“I got cold shivers,” said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, an investigator in the trial of the drug, lenacapavir, describing the startling sight of a line of zeros in the data column for new infections. “After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.”

Yvette Raphael, the leader of a group called Advocacy for Prevention of H.I.V. and AIDS in South Africa, said it was “the best news ever.”

The randomized controlled trial, called Purpose 1, was conducted in Uganda and South Africa. It tested whether the every-six-months injection of lenacapavir, made by Gilead Sciences, would provide better protection against H.I.V. infection than two other drugs in wide use in high-income countries, both daily pills.

The results were so convincing that the trial was halted early at the recommendation of the independent data review committee, which said all participants should be offered the injection because it clearly provided superior protection against the virus.

None of the 2,134 women in the arm of the trial who received lenacapavir contracted H.I.V. By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women (or 1.5 percent) who took Truvada, a daily pill that has been available for more than a decade, and 39 of 2,136 women (1.8 percent) who received a newer daily pill called Descovy were infected.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Office of AIDS Research

• HIV Policy and Research
• Research Priorities
• NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research
• NIH HIV Research Budget
• NIH HIV Research Priority Areas
• Reduce the Incidence of HIV
• Develop Next-Generation HIV Therapies

Research Toward HIV Cure

• Address HIV-Associated Comorbidities, Coinfections, & Complications
• Cross-Cutting Areas

Viral latency and sanctuaries

Latent HIV reservoirs—small amounts of HIV that persist in people taking ART—present a significant challenge to finding a cure for HIV. Latent reservoirs remain in people with HIV when HIV becomes part of the body’s DNA in infected cells. Additionally, reservoirs of HIV can be found in certain “sanctuary” sites in the body that allow the virus to hide and be protected from both the immune system and ART. To cure HIV, the NIH supports studies to develop novel approaches and treatments that target these HIV reservoirs.

Sustained viral remission and viral eradication

Current science suggests that the path to an HIV cure involves first achieving sustained viral remission without ART. This is called sustained ART-free viral remission or a functional cure. For sustained ART-free viral remission, infectious virus must remain undetectable by sensitive testing methods for a long time without treatment. One research aim will be to prolong the time between treatments to be measured eventually not in weeks, but in months or even years. The NIH supports research into treatments leading to sustained ART-free viral remission . New cure-inducing treatments must be as safe, effective, and available for widespread use as are current-day ART regimens.

Viral eradication—eliminating the virus entirely—is the more challenging, longer-term goal.

Research Strategies

The NIH supports research to better understand how the HIV reservoir forms, persists, and reactivates, as well as investigations to develop new cure treatment strategies targeting HIV reservoirs.

A range of biomarkers and techniques, including single-cell and imaging technologies, are being studied to determine how to identify and describe the HIV reservoir. These techniques also are being used to better understand mechanisms of viral reactivation from latently infected cells.

Experimental treatments in development include therapeutic vaccines, genetically engineered immune cells that are resistant to HIV infection, drugs that reactivate latent HIV to make the virus visible to the immune system, cure-inducing immunotherapies, and interventions to permanently silence HIV in infected cells.

The search for an HIV cure involves important behavioral and social processes that complement the domains of biomedicine.  BSSR in HIV cure research is focused on important aspects such as: counseling and support interventions to address the psychosocial needs and concerns of study participants related to analytical treatment interruptions (ATIs); risk reduction in the course of ATI study participation; motivation, acceptability, and decision‐making processes of potential study participants; how cure affects the identity and social position of people with HIV; and the scalability of a proven cure strategy in the context of further advances in HIV prevention and treatment.

The NIH is leveraging resources toward an HIV cure through several public-private partnerships. NIH small business awards enable companies to help foster a diverse pipeline of experimental treatments in development. The combined support of government, industry, and nongovernmental foundations is fostering the expansion of a talented scientific workforce dedicated to advancing HIV cure research.

OAR scientist Dr. Paul Sato coordinates Research Toward an HIV Cure .

This page last reviewed on September 8, 2022

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• Backchannel
• Newsletters
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

Emily Mullin

There’s New Hope for an HIV Vaccine

Since it was first identified in 1983, HIV has infected more than 85 million people and caused some 40 million deaths worldwide.

While medication known as pre-exposure prophylaxis , or PrEP, can significantly reduce the risk of getting HIV, it has to be taken every day to be effective. A vaccine to provide lasting protection has eluded researchers for decades. Now, there may finally be a viable strategy for making one.

An experimental vaccine developed at Duke University triggered an elusive type of broadly neutralizing antibody in a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial. The findings were published today in the scientific journal Cell .

“This is one of the most pivotal studies in the HIV vaccine field to date,” says Glenda Gray, an HIV expert and the president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, who was not involved in the study.

A few years ago, a team from Scripps Research and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) showed that it was possible to stimulate the precursor cells needed to make these rare antibodies in people. The Duke study goes a step further to generate these antibodies, albeit at low levels.

“This is a scientific feat and gives the field great hope that one can construct an HIV vaccine regimen that directs the immune response along a path that is required for protection,” Gray says.

Vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize a virus or other pathogen. They introduce something that looks like the virus—a piece of it, for example, or a weakened version of it—and by doing so, spur the body’s B cells into producing protective antibodies against it. Those antibodies stick around so that when a person later encounters the real virus, the immune system remembers and is poised to attack.

While researchers were able to produce Covid-19 vaccines in a matter of months, creating a vaccine against HIV has proven much more challenging. The problem is the unique nature of the virus. HIV mutates rapidly, meaning it can quickly outmaneuver immune defenses. It also integrates into the human genome within a few days of exposure, hiding out from the immune system.

“Parts of the virus look like our own cells, and we don’t like to make antibodies against our own selves,” says Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and one of the authors on the paper.

The particular antibodies that researchers are interested in are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can recognize and block different versions of the virus. Because of HIV’s shape-shifting nature, there are two main types of HIV and each has several strains. An effective vaccine will need to target many of them.

Some HIV-infected individuals generate broadly neutralizing antibodies, although it often takes years of living with HIV to do so, Haynes says. Even then, people don’t make enough of them to fight off the virus. These special antibodies are made by unusual B cells that are loaded with mutations they’ve acquired over time in reaction to the virus changing inside the body. “These are weird antibodies,” Haynes says. “The body doesn’t make them easily.”

By Eric Ravenscraft

By Adrienne So

By Angela Watercutter

By Julian Chokkattu

Haynes and his colleagues aimed to speed up that process in healthy, HIV-negative people. Their vaccine uses synthetic molecules that mimic a part of HIV’s outer coat, or envelope, called the membrane proximal external region. This area remains stable even as the virus mutates. Antibodies against this region can block many circulating strains of HIV.

The trial enrolled 20 healthy participants who were HIV-negative. Of those, 15 people received two of four planned doses of the investigational vaccine, and five received three doses. The trial was halted when one participant experienced an allergic reaction that was not life-threatening. The team found that the reaction was likely due to an additive in the vaccine, which they plan to remove in future testing.

Still, they found that two doses of the vaccine were enough to induce low levels of broadly neutralizing antibodies within a few weeks. Notably, B cells seemed to remain in a state of development to allow them to continue acquiring mutations, so they could evolve along with the virus. Researchers tested the antibodies on HIV samples in the lab and found that they were able to neutralize between 15 and 35 percent of them.

Jeffrey Laurence, a scientific consultant at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, says the findings represent a step forward, but that challenges remain. “It outlines a path for vaccine development, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he says.

For one, he says, a vaccine would need to generate antibody levels that are significantly higher and able to neutralize with greater efficacy. He also says a one-dose vaccine would be ideal. “If you’re ever going to have a vaccine that’s helpful to the world, you’re going to need one dose,” he says.

Targeting more regions of the virus envelope could produce a more robust response. Haynes says the next step is designing a vaccine with at least three components, all aimed at distinct regions of the virus. The goal is to guide the B cells to become much stronger neutralizers, Haynes says. “We’re going to move forward and build on what we have learned.”

You Might Also Like …

In your inbox: Get Plaintext —Steven Levy's long view on tech

Welcome to the hellhole of programmatic advertising

How many EV charging stations does the US need to replace gas stations?

A nonprofit tried to fix tech culture —but lost control of its own

It's always sunny: Here are the best sunglasses for every adventure

Matt Reynolds

Sachi Mulkey

Mark Harris

Jonathan O'Callaghan

Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

Jonathan O’Callaghan

Steve Nadis

Co-discoverer of HIV to bring his research to USF. He’s looking for a cure.

• Sam Ogozalek Times staff

Robert Gallo, 87, is still hunting for a cure to HIV. And he’s bringing his research to Tampa this summer.

Gallo, an influential scientist who’s credited as the co-discoverer of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is joining the University of South Florida faculty in July. He plans to dive into a range of subjects as director of a new virology center.

In 2011, he co-founded the Global Virus Network , an international coalition of virologists, which is moving its headquarters to the university under a five-year agreement in which USF will pay the network $2 million per year for support. He previously led the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland.

Gallo is best known for his early work on HIV, which sparked what “PBS News Hour” once called a “transatlantic research war” — a bitter feud between scientists that eventually led to intervention from President Ronald Reagan and his French counterpart.

In 1983, Luc Montagnier, a researcher in Paris, published his lab’s findings on a virus he called LAV, but noted that its role in AIDS was still undetermined, according to an obituary from 2022 in The Washington Post . A year later, the U.S. secretary of health and human services announced that Gallo and his lab had found the probable cause of AIDS. The culprit was a virus they called HTLV-3. At that time, AIDS had already killed more than 1,700 people in the U.S. and would ultimately lead to millions of fatalities worldwide in the late 20th century.

Montagnier sent samples of his virus to Gallo, who eventually acknowledged that the American lab’s virus was probably contaminated by the French samples, The Post reported.

Gallo’s team secured a U.S. patent for a blood test in 1985, spurring a lawsuit from the French against the federal government, according to The Post’s obituary. The two nations later agreed to split royalties from the test — worth millions of dollars each year — and Gallo and Montagnier were credited as co-discoverers of the virus, which was renamed HIV in 1986. But only Montagnier won a Nobel Prize for his work.

The Tampa Bay Times recently spoke to Gallo, who was the most referenced scientist in the world in the 1980s and ‘90s , about his plans for the USF virology center, what could spark the next pandemic and his thoughts on Florida’s COVID-19 response.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Will the center conduct research, and if yes, what will it focus on?

The first thing is to make it as good as possible and to think about what are the future problems, but also I’m entangled with research on things of the past … viruses involved in human cancer and, of course, in HIV and AIDS.

I just published two papers with French colleagues. … I believe we have shed new light on the mechanisms of how HIV causes AIDS. That gives ideas for new forms of therapy that I believe have the potential of leading to a “functional cure.” … I’m working on that with collaborators.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

I have an interest in what’s called HTLV-1 ( human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 ) . It was the first retrovirus to be discovered, before HIV, which is also a retrovirus. … It’s the cause of leukemia of T cells in young adults.

It doesn’t transmit easily but it’s highly cancer causing.

Can you expand on HIV, what work your team is going to be doing?

With my French collaborators … we found something very strange. In an infection, rather early, if not (immediately), there are abnormalities not just in the HIV-infected cells but throughout the body in all immune cells. How the hell does that happen? I was shocked when we had that data. So we decided to find out why, and I think we did.

It’s an overproduction of interferon-alpha , which is part of our innate immunity. … If it’s too high, and lasts too long, it becomes a real problem.

We’re going to try to target that interferon-alpha with antibodies. … I want to bring it into clinical trials fast. If we can get a functional cure, you don’t need therapy anymore.

What are the most pressing scientific questions you think virologists need to answer in the next decade?

There are some that are obvious. A universal flu vaccine. And then, could that be the same with COVID?

What pathogen do you think will spark the next pandemic?

I don’t know. … Look, who would suspect HIV? In the mid-, late ‘60s, when I was a young, beginning guy, everybody respected viruses and the possibility of epidemics. Ten years later, nobody did. I found that human retroviruses existed. I was laughed at. The first paper on HTLV-1 was rejected by the Journal of Virology.

It may be a total surprise. If I had to bet, I’d say a variant of influenza. And because of our recent experience with MERS , then SARS and then COVID, you’d probably say another coronavirus, or one of the same emerging back again. … In the meantime, greater problems with dengue in the southern parts of the United States and all over the world, moving northward.

Public health has been so politicized in the wake of COVID-19, including in Florida. Is that a concern to you?

Of course it’s a concern. What can we do? Should scientists speak out all the time, but then cause trouble for a university or themselves? … I don’t know what to say. I really don’t.

The state of Florida’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been criticized by many public health experts. Gov. Ron DeSantis, for instance, in 2022 petitioned the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate “crimes and wrongs” in Florida related to COVID-19 vaccines. Given these issues, as a virologist are you uncomfortable at all moving to Florida and joining the faculty of a state-funded university?

People there have told me that he’s very smart, very rational, not good in crowds, so that hurts him.

I have no fears about Florida. And when talking to the dean (College of Medicine Dean Charles Lockwood) , he thought it would be very useful to try to meet with the governor to do what I did in Maryland. We had a lot of state support.

I heard great things about his wife and her care about cancer. I have not heard bad things, including by Democrats. … Did I agree with everything he said? … I can’t think of anybody I agree with all they said.

It’s been decades since this very public feud between you and the French scientist Luc Montagnier over the HIV discovery. As time has passed, looking back on that, do you have any reflections?

Who showed the cause? Unequivocally we did, they never did. Who grew the virus? Unequivocally we did, they never did. Who provided the technology? We did, they never did. … But their paper is the first paper.

We shouldn’t have called a press conference because I told the French group that we would do things together in a press conference. That was the beginning of a problem.

Now, the controversy was not a controversy until blood test patent money came to be.

Sam Ogozalek is a reporter covering the healthcare system and mental health. He can be reached at [email protected].

MORE FOR YOU

• Advertisement

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

Personalize Your Experience

Log in or create an account for a personalized experience based on your selected interests.

Already have an account? Log In

Free standard shipping is valid on orders of $45 or more (after promotions and discounts are applied, regular shipping rates do not qualify as part of the $45 or more) shipped to US addresses only. Not valid on previous purchases or when combined with any other promotional offers.

Register for an enhanced, personalized experience.

Receive free access to exclusive content, a personalized homepage based on your interests, and a weekly newsletter with topics of your choice.

Home / Innovation & Research / The innovative research behind HIV/AIDS treatment

The innovative research behind HIV/AIDS treatment

Please login to bookmark.

It’s been 40 years since the release of the first scientific report describing acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Thanks to innovative research, scientists learned how the HIV virus that causes AIDS replicates and how the immune system responds to the virus. Today, many people with HIV take just one pill a day to suppress the virus, and treatment is continuing to evolve.

In this video, Dr. Stacey Rizza , Mayo Clinic infectious disease physician and HIV researcher, explains how dedicated innovative science contributed to where we are today and what scientists are working on for the future.

What did the early research find?

Because of truly dedicated innovative science, within a few years, the scientific community figured out that AIDS was due to HIV. It then took a few years to figure out how to test for that virus. Several years later, the scientific community was able to quantitate how much virus was in a person’s blood. During all this time, truly innovative research into how the virus replicates and how the immune system responds to the virus allowed bio pharmacy companies to develop what we call anti-retroviral drugs or medications to slow down the viral replication. How has medication to treat HIV evolved?

The first drug approved for HIV was in 1987, which was AZT (now known as zidovudine). At that time, it was the fastest drug ever approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and started the fast-track mechanism through the FDA.

Then several other drugs within that same class were approved in the early 1990s. In late 1995, very early 1996, the first HIV protease inhibitors were approved. At that point, it was possible to combine three different medications from two different classes and completely suppress the HIV replication.

In the last 20 years, we’ve gone from people taking multiple medicines with lots of side effects to many of my patients with HIV now take a single pill a day. That’s a combination of medicines coformulated into one pill a day that’s extremely well-tolerated and completely suppresses their virus. We know it does not eliminate the virus. If they were to stop taking that medicine, the virus would come back. But we now have a handful of people in the world who have been what we called functionally cured of HIV, meaning they’ve gone through some research protocols that eliminated the reservoir of HIV in their body.

The new drugs are so effective in people who have fully suppressed virus that many only need to use two medications to maintain HIV treatment and control. New research is investigating ways to deliver the medications differently, such as a shot that lasts several months, or maybe someday even implantable medication delivery mechanisms so that people don’t have to take the pill every day. It is very exciting that HIV therapy is moving that direction.

Why isn’t there a cure for HIV?

The reason why it is so difficult to cure HIV is that once HIV infects a person’s body, it integrates into the host genome of several cell types. Those cells then hide in any of the lymphoid tissue, such as the lymph nodes, the liver and the spleen. And they lay there as what we call “latent” or “hiding”, as long as the person is on HIV therapy. Anytime a virus does leave a cell, it gets taken care of by HIV therapy. But if the infected individual stops the HIV therapy, that latent virus will come back. To cure HIV, you have to eliminate those hiding viruses in the cells or that latent viral reservoir, which is the term. There are many ways you can approach eliminating the reservoir.

Where is the research now?

One of the more popular ways that have been investigated is something called — and there are many different terms for it — “prime, shock, and kill” or “kick, and kill”, which is essentially giving medications that first wake the virus up from latency and then find ways to make the cells that have the virus susceptible to dying. When the virus is awake, and the cell is susceptible to dying, it kills itself but does not kill any other cells in the body.

Essentially, it specifically targets the HIV-infected cells and eliminates them without hurting anything else. This new science is exciting. It’s getting closer and closer to understanding how to do this effectively. And if you can do that with oral medications rather than fancy therapies like gene therapy or bone marrow transplant, it’s scalable to large parts of the world, and you can touch millions of people that way. That’s where the area of research is on how to make those hiding cells wake up, how to make them sensitive to die, and how to target just the HIV-infected cell.

Will we see a vaccine for HIV?

HIV has been a very hard vaccine to develop. In the world of viruses, vaccines fall into one of three buckets. They fall into the bucket where they respond to antibodies induced by the vaccine, and the vaccines are outstanding. Such viruses include polio, mumps, and lucky for us, SARS-CoV-2. Then we have the second category, like the influenza vaccine, which is about 60% effective. It certainly saves lives and makes a difference, but it’s not perfect. And then we have the third bucket, which quite frankly is the vast majority of viruses that infect humans. And HIV is in that category, where simply forming an antibody to the virus is not adequate to prevent infection. You have to do very sophisticated engineering to induce T cell effects, as well as innate effects and antibody effects. Even then, sometimes it’s very hard to decide what is the part of the virus to target. After decades, and billions of dollars of research, we’re still not there for HIV. There have been many approaches of how to do this science. Many different scientific delivery mechanisms, many different areas of the viruses targeted, many different parts of the immune system targeted, and so far, none of them have been effective at preventing HIV infection.

What needs to happen next?

We still need to slow down the number of people getting infected through good public health measures and good education to stop the HIV epidemic. We still need to get more people who are infected on therapy.

We know we can do it with public health measures. But we also need to find out more about how we eliminate that reservoir and get people cured of the virus in a simple and effective way so that we can cure more people. And the last major hurdle we have is to develop an effective vaccine. We still don’t have a vaccine that can prevent infection, a preventive vaccine, or a therapeutic vaccine where you give it to people who already have the virus that can help them control the infection. A huge amount of research has happened, but we’re still not there yet.

This article originally appeared on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Relevant reading

The Mayo Brothers’ Heritage

This book contains an inspiring collection of powerful insights, depicted in quotes and pictures from the family of physicians who founded Mayo Clinic.   Page count: 120

Discover more Innovation & Research content from articles, podcasts, to videos.

You May Also Enjoy

by Mary Beth Sartor Obermeyer

by Victor Montori, M.D.

Privacy Policy

We've made some updates to our Privacy Policy. Please take a moment to review.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

The FDA has approved a new drug in the fight against AIDS

Jason Beaubien

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first injectable medication for HIV prevention. Health advocates say it could be a game changer in protecting people against AIDS

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

• What Are HIV and AIDS?
• How Is HIV Transmitted?
• Who Is at Risk for HIV?
• Symptoms of HIV
• U.S. Statistics
• Impact on Racial and Ethnic Minorities
• Global Statistics
• HIV and AIDS Timeline
• In Memoriam
• Supporting Someone Living with HIV
• Standing Up to Stigma
• Getting Involved
• HIV Treatment as Prevention
• Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)
• Post-exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)
• Preventing Sexual Transmission of HIV
• Alcohol and HIV Risk
• Substance Use and HIV Risk
• Preventing Perinatal Transmission of HIV
• HIV Vaccines
• Long-acting HIV Prevention Tools
• Microbicides
• Who Should Get Tested?
• HIV Testing Locations
• HIV Testing Overview
• Understanding Your HIV Test Results
• Living with HIV
• Talking About Your HIV Status
• Locate an HIV Care Provider
• Types of Providers
• Take Charge of Your Care
• What to Expect at Your First HIV Care Visit
• Making Care Work for You
• Seeing Your Health Care Provider
• HIV Lab Tests and Results
• Returning to Care
• HIV Treatment Overview
• Viral Suppression and Undetectable Viral Load
• Taking Your HIV Medicine as Prescribed
• Tips on Taking Your HIV Medicine as Prescribed
• Paying for HIV Care and Treatment
• Other Health Issues of Special Concern for People Living with HIV
• Alcohol and Drug Use
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) and People with HIV
• Hepatitis B & C
• Vaccines and People with HIV
• Flu and People with HIV
• Mental Health
• Mpox and People with HIV
• Opportunistic Infections
• Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Syphilis and People with HIV
• HIV and Women's Health Issues
• Aging with HIV
• Emergencies and Disasters and HIV
• Employment and Health
• Exercise and Physical Activity
• Nutrition and People with HIV
• Housing and Health
• Traveling Outside the U.S.
• Civil Rights
• Workplace Rights
• Limits on Confidentiality
• National HIV/AIDS Strategy (2022-2025)
• Implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
• Prior National HIV/AIDS Strategies (2010-2021)
• Key Strategies
• Priority Jurisdictions
• HHS Agencies Involved
• Learn More About EHE
• Ready, Set, PrEP
• Ready, Set, PrEP Pharmacies
• Ready, Set, PrEP Resources
• AHEAD: America’s HIV Epidemic Analysis Dashboard
• HIV Prevention Activities
• HIV Testing Activities
• HIV Care and Treatment Activities
• HIV Research Activities
• Activities Combating HIV Stigma and Discrimination
• The Affordable Care Act and HIV/AIDS
• HIV Care Continuum
• Syringe Services Programs
• Finding Federal Funding for HIV Programs
• Fund Activities
• The Fund in Action
• About PACHA
• Members & Staff
• Subcommittees
• Prior PACHA Meetings and Recommendations
• I Am a Work of Art Campaign
• Awareness Campaigns
• Global HIV/AIDS Overview
• U.S. Government Global HIV/AIDS Activities
• U.S. Government Global-Domestic Bidirectional HIV Work
• Global HIV/AIDS Organizations
• National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day February 7
• HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day February 28
• National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day March 10
• National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day March 20
• National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day April 10
• HIV Vaccine Awareness Day May 18
• National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day May 19
• HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day June 5
• National HIV Testing Day June 27
• Zero HIV Stigma July 21
• Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day August 20
• National Faith HIV/AIDS Awareness Day August 27
• National African Immigrant and Refugee HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis Awareness Day September 9
• National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day September 18
• National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day September 27
• National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day October 15
• World AIDS Day December 1
• Event Planning Guide
• U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA)
• National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment
• AIDS 2020 (23rd International AIDS Conference Virtual)

Want to stay abreast of changes in prevention, care, treatment or research or other public health arenas that affect our collective response to the HIV epidemic? Or are you new to this field?

HIV.gov curates learning opportunities for you, and the people you serve and collaborate with.

Stay up to date with the webinars, Twitter chats, conferences and more in this section.

FDA Approves New HIV Drug for Adults with Limited Treatment Options

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Email

Cross-posted from FDA News Release

[On December 22, 2022], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Sunlenca (lenacapavir), a new type of antiretroviral medication for adult patients living with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), whose HIV infections cannot be successfully treated with other available treatments due to resistance, intolerance, or safety considerations. After the starting dose is completed, Sunlenca is administered as subcutaneous (under the skin) injections once every six months, allowing convenient dosing for patients.

“Today’s approval ushers in a new class of antiretroviral drugs that may help patients with HIV who have run out of treatment options,” said Debra Birnkrant, M.D., director of the Division of Antivirals in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The availability of new classes of antiretroviral medications may possibly help these patients live longer, healthier lives.”

Sunlenca is the first of a new class of drugs called capsid inhibitors to be FDA-approved for treating HIV-1. Sunlenca works by blocking the HIV-1 virus’ protein shell (the capsid), thereby interfering with multiple essential steps of the viral lifecycle. Sunlenca’s starting dose is given as oral tablets and subcutaneous injections, followed by maintenance injections every six months; Sunlenca is given in combination with other antiretroviral(s). 

The safety and efficacy of Sunlenca were established through a multicenter  clinical trial  with 72 patients whose HIV infections were resistant to multiple classes of HIV medications. These patients had to have high levels of virus in their blood despite being on antiretroviral drugs. Patients were enrolled into one of two study groups. One group was randomized to receive either Sunlenca or placebo in a double-blind fashion, and the other group received open-label Sunlenca. The primary measure of efficacy was the proportion of patients in the randomized study group who achieved a certain level of reduction in virus during the initial 14 days compared to baseline. In this group, 87.5% of patients who received Sunlenca achieved such a decrease in virus compared to 16.7% of patients who received a placebo. After 26 weeks of Sunlenca plus other antiretrovial drugs, 81% of participants in the first group achieved HIV RNA suppression, where levels of HIV were low enough to be considered undetectable. After 52 weeks, 83% of participants continued to have HIV RNA suppression.

The most common adverse reactions with Sunlenca were injection site reactions and nausea. Most injection site reactions were described as swelling, pain or redness. Sunlenca comes with certain warnings and precautions. Injection site reactions described as nodules or indurations may be persistent in some patients. Additional warnings and precautions include the risk of developing immune reconstitution syndrome, which is when the immune system overreacts after starting HIV treatment. Also, small (residual) amounts of Sunlenca can remain in the body for up to a year or longer; low levels of drug caused by missing doses of Sunlenca or failing to maintain a fully suppressive HIV treatment regimen after stopping Sunlenca could lead to an increased risk of developing viral resistance. Residual amounts of Sunlenca could also lead to potential drug interactions.

Patients should not receive Sunlenca if they also take certain drugs that cause reduced levels of Sunlenca. This may result in losing virologic response and developing viral resistance. 

The FDA granted Sunlenca  Priority Review ,  Fast Track  and  Breakthrough Therapy  designations for this indication. 

The FDA granted the approval of Sunlenca to Gilead Sciences.

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

Related HIV.gov Blogs

• FDA Food & Drug Administration
• Treatment HIV Treatment

Popular Search Resources for

SUNY Downstate Researchers Publish Groundbreaking Study on HIV Research Participation Among Marginalized Communities

By Office of Communications & Marketing | Jun 24, 2024

The Study, Published in AIDS and Behavior, Will Help Researchers Develop Culturally Inclusive Recruitment Methods for Future HIV Studies

BROOKLYN, NY – SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University today announced the publication of new research from the Special Treatment and Research (STAR) Program in AIDS and Behavior , a peer-reviewed journal published by Springer. The study, Personality Traits and eHealth Study Enrollment Among Racial and Sexual Minoritized Men Living with HIV, analyzed the role of personality traits in HIV study participation among Black and Latinx sexual minority men.

The study—spearheaded by STAR’s Sabina Hirshfield, MA, PhD , José E. Diaz, PhD , and Portia Thomas, DNSc, RN-CNE, MPH (formerly at STAR)—aims to bolster inclusivity in HIV research by evaluating the effect of certain personality traits on the decision to enroll in an HIV study. Dr. Hirshfield was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct this research between 2014 and 2018, and continued her work on the study after joining SUNY Downstate in 2018.

"To achieve more equitable healthcare outcomes for marginalized communities, it is crucial that we strive for inclusivity in all approaches to research and treatment." said Dr. Hirshfield. "Our findings will inform future recruitment and engagement strategies as researchers across the country work to tailor recruitment strategies for diverse cultural contexts. We look forward to seeing more equitable healthcare outcomes in Brooklyn and beyond as a result of these important findings.”

There is a known enrollment gap in eHealth studies among Black and Latinx sexual minority men. To better understand these participation discrepancies, Hirshfield and her colleagues recruited potential study participants via social media platforms, LGBTQ+ dating apps, and other websites. Potential participants were directed to the online study screener, and using the Big Five Inventory 10-Item Scale, researchers analyzed personality differences between individuals who completed the study enrollment and those who did not.

This study builds on prior research seeking to understand how to best recruit and engage racial and ethnic sexual minority men. Earlier studies have sought to assess socio-ecological factors that contribute to lower enrollment rates among Black and Latinx sexual minority men, such as medical mistrust and a lack of inclusivity in recruitment materials. However, this study fills a critical gap in prior research by examining how the Big Five personality traits influence the decision to enroll in a study. Researchers found that among Latinx sexual minority men, an individual’s degree of neuroticism and openness played a role in the likelihood of study participation. These findings will shape future engagement strategies as researchers seek to close the participation gap among Black and Latinx sexual minority men.

The full study is available in the June edition of AIDS and Behavior , and can be accessed here .

About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.

UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companie

• Latest News

View Press Releases

• Post a Press Release
• Reprint Articles
• Digital Advertising
• Lead Generation
• Editorial Calendar
• Whitepapers
• Inside eBooks
• Industry Events
• IT Conferences
• Bio-IT World Expo
• Bio-IT World Expo Europe
• Editorial Profile
• Editorial Calender
• Submit a story
• Innovative Practices Awards
• Linking Policy
• Bio-IT World Boston
• Bio-IT World Europe

Integrated DNA Technologies Introduces New HIV Panel to Advance Virology Research

xGen™ HIV Amplicon Panel provides a single-tube, 2.5-hour  workflow

designed to enable detection down to 1,000 viral genome copies  

CORALVILLE, Iowa (June 24, 2024) —Global genomics solutions provider, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), is bringing a new solution to address challenges researchers face in accelerating Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) drug discovery and research. The company announced availability of the xGen HIV Amplicon Panel consisting of primers designed to cover 99.3% of the HIV genome. Powered by IDT’s xGen Amplicon Technology, the HIV panel provides a single-tube, two-step PCR amplification workflow that uses overlapping primer sets to obtain high levels of genome coverage from as low as 1,000 double-stranded viral genome copies.

“This launch represents one of the many ways IDT is continuing to innovate on its NGS portfolio, comprised of stand-alone library preparation, target enrichment, and normalization chemistries, as well as connected NGS solutions, to support researchers exploring viral evolution, epidemiological studies, drug resistance mechanisms and drug development research,” said Steven Henck, PhD, Vice President, R&D at Integrated DNA Technologies. “While the scientific community has learned a lot about HIV and the disease it causes, continued research is needed to help the millions of people whose health continues to be threatened by the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. We believe our xGen HIV Amplicon Panel provides an accessible option for researchers and will be foundational to unlocking future discoveries and advancing HIV research.”

IDT’s xGen HIV Amplicon Panel offers a streamlined workflow that goes from sample to sequencer in 2.5 hours with up to 1536 unique dual indexing primers (UDIs) for multiplexed sequencing. This predesigned xGen Amplicon Panel built with xGen Amplicon Technology includes amplicon tiling and creation of super amplicons to ensure comprehensive genome coverage across existing variant genomes and provide resistance to future viral mutations that may fall within a priming site, thus enabling future identification of novel variants .

To learn more or order IDT’s xGen HIV Amplicon Panel, visit idtdna.com/ngsHIV .

For more than 35 years, Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IDT) has empowered genomics laboratories with an oligonucleotide manufacturing process unlike anyone else in the industry, featuring the most advanced synthesis, modification, purification, and quality control capabilities available. Since its founding in 1987, IDT has progressed from a leading oligo manufacturer to a genomics solutions provider supporting key application areas such as next generation sequencing, CRISPR genome editing, synthetic biology, digital PCR, and RNA interference. IDT manufactures products used by scientists researching many forms of cancer and most inherited and infectious diseases.

Seeking to fulfill its mission of accelerating the pace of genomics, IDT acquired Archer™ NGS Research Assays in December 2022. When combined with its existing solutions, the expanded portfolio helps realize the shared vision of enabling researchers to rapidly move from the lab to life-changing advances.

IDT’s infrastructure supports customers around the globe with its manufacturing headquarters situated in Coralville, Iowa, USA, with additional manufacturing sites in San Diego, California, USA; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; Leuven, Belgium; and Singapore.

IDT is proud to be part of Danaher. Danaher’s science and technology leadership puts IDT’s solutions at the forefront of the industry, so they can reach more people. Being part of Danaher means we can offer unparalleled breadth and depth of expertise and solutions to our customers.

Together with Danaher’s other businesses across Biotechnology, Diagnostics and Life Sciences, we unlock the transformative potential of cutting-edge science and technology to improve billions of lives every day.

For more information about IDT, visit www.idtdna.com and follow the company on LinkedIn , X , Facebook , YouTube , and Instagram .

Disclaimer: RUO — For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures . Unless otherwise agreed to in writing, IDT does not intend these products to be used in clinical applications and does not warrant their fitness or suitability for any clinical diagnostic use. RUO24-2923_001

• HIV & AIDS
• History & Facts
• Risk Factors & Spread
• Among Specific Individuals & Communities
• Pregnancy, Children & HIV
• Screening & Testing
• Overview of Treatment
• Drug Treatments
• What Does HIV do to Your Body?
• Heart Problems
• Lung Problems
• Pain & Nerve Problems
• Vision Problems
• Opportunistic Infections
• What Complications Are Caused by HIV and AIDS?
• HIV With Other Conditions
• Living With
• Dating & Relationships
• Support & Resources
• Is HIV Preventable?
• PrEP and PEP
• Vaccines Potential
• Appointment Prep
• View Full Guide

HIV: Latest Research

HIV research has made remarkable progress since scientists first identified the disease in the 1980s. There are new prevention methods and therapies to extend the lives of those living with the disease. So what does the future hold for HIV research? Here’s a look at what’s on the horizon.

HIV Prevention

Stopping the spread of HIV is an important step toward ending the outbreak of the disease around the world. Today, there are several methods to slow HIV, and scientists are working on new tools.

HIV is constantly evolving into new strains. This makes it hard to develop a vaccine , but scientists are making progress. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is researching two HIV vaccines and testing them in people around the world. The goal of these vaccines is to turn on an immune response to a wide range of HIV strains.

Another vaccine candidate from IAVI and Scripps Research works by prompting the immune system to turn on in response to different versions and mutations of HIV. Early research results show it’s 97% effective.

Long-acting prevention

Researchers are also working on HIV prevention methods that last for months or even years. They could offer new choices for protecting yourself against the virus or improve products that you already use.

• Vaginal ring: This flexible silicone ring steadily releases the anti-HIV drug dapivirine. You replace it monthly. Women ages 18 to 45 who took part in two large clinical trials lowered their chance of HIV infection by about 30% when using it.
• Injections: The FDA has approved cabotegravir ( Apretude ) to protect you from HIV for as long as 1 to 6 months.  You get it as a shot once every 8 weeks. Studies show it may be just as safe and work better than the daily oral drug emtricitabine /tenofovir.
• Implants: One promising new technology is long-acting implants in your arm. The matchstick-sized implant slowly releases an anti-HIV drug and could offer protection against HIV for 1 year or longer. Several of these implants are in the works but are still in the early stages of development.
• Oral pills: Researchers are also studying a pill that could protect you from HIV for 30 days. Two other HIV prevention pills, Truvada and Descovy , have been around for years, but you take them daily. Research shows that although these drugs lower your chance of getting HIV by anywhere from 74% to 99%, many people aren’t aware of them or are afraid they would be shamed for taking them.
• Monoclonal antibodies: These lab-created immune system proteins may work to prevent HIV. Scientists are looking at how a mix of assorted antibodies could be a tool in long-term HIV prevention and treatment.

HIV Treatment

There’s no cure for HIV, but medicine can help you manage the disease and ward off other health problems. Scientists and drugmakers continue to develop new treatments for people living with HIV , turning their focus to long-acting therapies.

Once-monthly HIV therapy

In January 2021, the FDA approved the first long-acting injectable treatment for adults with HIV. Cabenuva is a combo of two drugs ( cabotegravir and rilpivirine ) that you take as a shot once a month or every two months. It’s considered a breakthrough in treatment since most HIV drugs require an oral daily dose.

One small survey of people living with HIV shows that more people prefer long-acting shots than pills you take every day. Most (73%) who responded to the survey said they were definitely or probably interested in trying an injectable. This type of medicine could help with issues of missed doses and medical privacy.

Twice Yearly HIV Treatment

Lenacapavir ( Sunlenca ) is the first of a new class of drugs called capsid inhibitors to be FDA-approved and is for treating adults with HIV that is not adequately controlled by their current treatment regimen. It blocks the HIV virus’ protein shell called the capsid which interrupts an important step in the virus life cycle. Sunlenca’s starting dose is given as oral tablets and subcutaneous injections which is followed by maintenance injections every six months. It is given in combination with other antiretroviral(s). 

Other HIV treatments

The FDA has also recently approved two other drugs to treat HIV in kids and adults.

• Dolutegravir ( Tivicay ) for children: There are 1.8 million children (birth to 14 years old) living with HIV. This drug is the first integrase inhibitor (a class of anti-HIV drugs) dissolved in water that’s available for children as young as 4 weeks old.
• Fostemsavir ( Rukobia ): This medicine is an attachment inhibitor (antiretroviral drug) for adults who haven’t had success with other HIV treatments .

Top doctors in ,

Find more top doctors on, related links.

• HIV & AIDS Health Resources News
• HIV & AIDS Health Resources Reference
• HIV & AIDS Health Resources Slideshows
• HIV & AIDS Health Blogs
• HIV & AIDS Health Resources Medications
• Find a Doctor
• Crisis Assistance
• HIV Myths and Facts
• Molluscum Contagiosum
• Sexual Conditions
• More Related Topics

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• 21 February 2023

Third patient free of HIV after receiving virus-resistant cells

• Sara Reardon

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

A 53-year-old man in Germany has become at least the third person with HIV to be declared clear of the virus after a procedure that replaced his bone marrow cells with HIV-resistant stem cells from a donor.

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 615 , 13-14 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00479-2

Jensen, B.-E. O. et al. Nature Med . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02213-x (2023).

Article   Google Scholar  

Holt, N. et al. Nature Biotechnol. 28 , 839–847 (2010).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Xu, L. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 381 , 1240–1247 (2019).

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Related Articles

Second patient free of HIV after stem-cell therapy

Hopes of HIV cure in 'Boston patients' dashed

• HIV infections

Blockbuster obesity drug leads to better health in people with HIV

News 11 MAR 24

The HIV capsid mimics karyopherin engagement of FG-nucleoporins

Article 24 JAN 24

This is how the world finally ends the HIV/AIDS pandemic

Comment 28 NOV 23

First encounter with SARS-CoV-2: immune portraits of COVID susceptibility

News & Views 19 JUN 24

What causes long COVID? Case builds for rogue antibodies

News 13 JUN 24

A virally encoded high-resolution screen of cytomegalovirus dependencies

Article 05 JUN 24

Mini saunas save endangered frogs from fungal disease

News & Views 26 JUN 24

Huge amounts of bird-flu virus found in raw milk of infected cows

News 05 JUN 24

Drug-resistant infections more likely to strike women, says WHO

Technician - Senior Research Technician in Patient-Derived Tumour Organoids for Drug Resistance ERC

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: July 26th, 2024 Join the Forefront of Cancer Research: Become a Research Technician / Senior Research Technician in Pati...

Human Technopole

Director, Office of Cancer Centers

Director, Office of Cancer Centers Office of the Director National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health Department of Health and Human Se...

Bethesda, Maryland (US)

National Cancer Institute - OD

2024 Recruitment notice Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology: Shenzhen, China

The wide-ranging expertise drawing from technical, engineering or science professions...

Shenzhen,China

Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology

Recruitment of Talent Positions at Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University

Call for top experts and scholars in the field of science and technology.

Shenyang, Liaoning, China

Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University

Position Opening for Principal Investigator GIBH

We aim to foster cutting-edge scientific and technological advancements in the field of molecular tissue biology at the single-cell level.

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health(GIBH), Chinese Academy of Sciences

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

by Steve Walentik | Jun 26, 2024

Missouri Institute or Mental Health Director Robert Paul (at left) leads the Precision Health Research team, including Jacob Bolzenius, Candice Adair, Natalie George, Julie Mannarino and Anshu Chappidi. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

For many Americans, COVID-19 no longer occupies space at the forefront of their minds.

More than four years removed from the start of the global pandemic, life has more or less returned to normal. No more facemasks, vaccine cards or reminders to maintain social distancing.

But the SARS-CoV-2 virus hasn’t gone away. It remains, although it no longer feels so “novel” and is less virulent than it once was. It’s still infecting people, and in an estimated 30% of cases, still leading to symptoms such as fatigue, loss of smell, brain fogginess or post-exertional malaise that can persist for weeks, months or even years as part of a chronic condition known as “Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (“PASC”), also referred to as “ long COVID .”

“Right now, clinicians don’t have a tool – a clinical aid – to help identify whether or not patients are at risk for having long-term problems,” said Robert Paul , the director of the Missouri Institute of Mental Health at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences . “In most cases, they might not feel well for a few weeks but they are going to be fine, but others end up in the hospital with persistent symptoms or they might die. Those are such different outcomes, and clinicians don’t have a great way to identify, with good precision, what someone’s risk for those different outcomes are based on their initial symptoms.”

Relatedly, the biological mechanisms that cause the symptoms to persist after the initial period of infection remain unknown, which Paul said creates a major obstacle to research aimed at producing effective clinical therapies to prevent, treat or cure individuals.

Paul is hoping a pair of research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health that are currently being undertaken by  MIMH’s Precision Health Research team – alongside experts in neurology at Yale University School of Medicine and infectious disease at the U.S. Military HIV Research Program and Chulalongkorn Medical School in Bangkok, Thailand – might help increase understanding of how the virus works in the human brain. That, in turn, could improve clinicians’ ability to recognize the patients most vulnerable to longer-term complications from the virus so that they can get the most effective treatment.

Research conducted by the MIMH Precision Health Research team implicated smaller volumes of the amygdala (blue) and pallidum (red) in differentiating individuals who acquired COVID compared to individuals who did not within 2 years. (Image courtesy of the MIMH Precision Health Research team)

Paul and his team have been collaborating with Dr. Serena Spudich , co-director of the Yale University School of Medicine’s Center for Brain & Mind Health and the division chief for neurological infections and global neurology, on a $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health titled “Longitudinal determination of nervous system consequences of SARS-CoV-2 in virologically suppressed people with HIV-1 treated in early infection.” Nearly $700,000 of that funding has been directed to UMSL, with Paul serving as the co-principal investigator.

The study is focused on adults who have undergone extensive clinical profiling for up to 15 years as part of the largest ongoing investigation of the earliest biological dynamics of HIV and long-term responses to HIV treatment.

“Because we have all that information before people became infected with COVID, and since we follow them long-term, we have the pre-COVID and post-COVID evaluations of these individuals,” Paul said. “We have just a remarkably deep level of understanding of their immune systems and biology, but also their mental health and their brain function.”

Published work from the cohort in Bangkok has revealed that HIV can be detected in the central nervous system within eight days from the date of initial infection, but HIV treatment does not eradicate the virus from the body, leaving viral reservoirs that continue to disrupt the immune system despite successful control over viral replication outside of the brain. Paul and his collaborators are interested in trying to learn whether COVID-19 also establishes early viral reservoirs in the brain or synergizes with HIV-related viral or immune mechanisms to increase the risk of long COVID-19, but now that remains unknown.

Paul and his team are also part of an international research team, led by Dr. Trevor Crowell , the director of the Clinical Research Directorate at the Military HIV Research Program, evaluating the interplay of HIV, COVID-19 and neurobehavioral health. This second NIMH-sponsored study is supported by a total grant of $3,822,251.

The researchers are making use of very large sets of clinical data acquired in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and Thailand to understand the social, cultural, financial and healthcare system-related barriers that emerged during the different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the consequences to mental and physical health associated with disruptions limiting access to care for people around the world, particularly in resource-limited settings. They are also targeting pre-infection to post-infection problems with mental health. Paul and his team work closely with the data coordinating center at MHRP to harmonize data acquired in the individual cohorts to foster discovery of new insights regarding the HIV-COVID-19 syndemic.

Paul’s team brings particular expertise in using neuroimaging to quantify and visualize damage caused by HIV and COVID-19 on brain structure and function. The MIMH team is also recognized internationally for the application of machine learning methods – i.e. artificial intelligence – from the data science field to discover the presence of distinct risk profiles needed to inform the development of therapeutic strategies.

“We believe with the methods that we use and the data that we have available to us, we have an opportunity to create a decision tool for clinicians to facilitate early identification of individuals who are at risk for persistent immune and brain abnormalities associated with HIV and COVID-19 infection,” Paul said. “The work has important clinical significance because the combination of viral, immune and psychosocial and cultural factors that identify distinct individual health outcomes following HIV or COVID-19 infection is a critical step towards designing and implementing clinical strategies that can be tailored to individual risk profiles. That is the ultimate goal for precision health research.”

LATEST NEWS

Steve Walentik

You might also like.

UMSL’s Community Innovation and Action Center collaborates with Saint Louis Zoo on youth co-design program for upcoming WildCare Park

The group of 25 students, ranging in ages from 13 to 18, worked together to come up with three distinct ideas for youth programming at the upcoming park.

Jun 24, 2024

Rob Wilson, Amy Banken and Stephanie Eaton receive UMSL Hero Awards

The award is presented to up to three staff or faculty members each month in recognition of their efforts to transform the lives of UMSL students and the wider community.

Eye on UMSL: Sweet ride

Triton Leaders Allison Lendman, Ashley Schauwecker and Cole McWilliams take a seat in the newly wrapped, UMSL-branded red golf cart outside the Millennium Student Center.

Michael Cosmopoulos celebrates induction into Academy of Athens, receives honorary professorship from University of Peloponnese

Cosmopoulos, the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professor in Greek Studies, has been celebrated for the excavation he’s led of the ancient Peloponnesian village of Iklaina in southwestern Greece.

• General Assembly

Highlighting Significant Gains against HIV/AIDS, Top UN Officials Tell General Assembly Global Goal of Ending Deadly Disease as Public Health Threat by 2030 Is within Reach

The global response to HIV/AIDS has been “a success story”, senior United Nations officials told the General Assembly today, as delegates spotlighted significant gains in the fight against the widespread disease as well as the remaining challenges to ending the public health scare by 2030.

“We have an inspirational story to tell,” said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, noting that more than three quarters of those living with HIV are receiving life-saving treatment — almost 30 million people globally.

Citing expanded and rapid access to therapy across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific — home to almost 80 per cent of people living with HIV, she stressed that “this is the most outstanding public health achievement of recent times”.  If this progress is maintained, the international community is on track to reach the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, she said, underscoring:  “This is a cause of celebration at a time when many of the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely off-track.”

Agreeing, Jörundur Valtýsson (Iceland), Vice President of the General Assembly, said:  “The global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic stands as a multilateral success story — having made remarkable gains.”  Since peaking in 2004, the number of HIV/AIDS-related deaths has significantly declined, he added. 

However, challenges remain, he emphasized. “Despite these gains, more work is needed to completely end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 3.3.,” he said, reporting that millions still lack access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment — and gender inequalities, stigma, and discrimination persist as major barriers to those services.

In the ensuing discussion, delegates exchanged views on the Secretary-General’s latest report on “the path to ending AIDS — progress report on 2025 targets and solutions for the future” (document A/78/883 ).  Several Member States with high infection rates among their populations shared their “success stories” and donor countries highlighted their financial and technical support.

Cuba is the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission, said its representative, adding that the goal is to reach the 95-95-95 target — 95 per cent of people living with HIV know their status, 95 per cent of people who know that they are living with HIV to be on life-saving antiretroviral treatment, and 95 per cent of people on such treatment to be virally suppressed.  “We must join our efforts to eradicate this disease once and for all”, he stated, underscoring the need to promote South-South cooperation for the benefit of other countries — mainly on the African continent — with technology transfer projects.

Namibia prides itself in recently becoming the first African country — and the first high-burden country in the world — to reach a significant milestone on the path towards eliminating vertical mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and viral hepatitis B, said its representative. Currently, 99 per cent of all children born to HIV-positive mothers are born HIV-free.  “This achievement is anchored in an approach that prioritized the decentralization of services to support community-based antiretroviral therapy and improve access to treatment,” she said.

While a reduction in new HIV/AIDS infection in sub-Saharan Africa is “encouraging”, this progress “must not be cause for complacency”, said the representative of Zimbabwe.  In his country, community health workers have played a pivotal role in reaching underserved populations, improving HIV testing rates and ensuring better follow-up and care for people living with HIV.  The Government instituted a novel 3 per cent tax on corporate profits and personal incomes to bridge donor resource gaps and finance programmes.  Educating youth about HIV/AIDS has proven effective with schools and universities incorporating this subject into their curriculum, he said.

HIV infection is increasing rapidly in the western Pacific region, warned the representative of the Philippines.  Stressing that “sustainable and equitable funding is needed to stem the rising numbers”, he echoed the Secretary-General’s call for increased domestic and international donor allocations for the HIV response in middle-income countries.

“Japan has been at the forefront of developing and providing child-friendly HIV treatments and effective HIV testing and treatments for low- and middle-income countries,” its delegate stressed, noting that Tokyo’s firm commitment to the global HIV agenda aligns with its broader focus on universal health coverage and preparedness for future pandemics, based on human security.

Poland was among the first Central European countries to offer wide and free access to diagnostics, antiretroviral treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS, including those at risk of marginalization, its representative said, noting that each year, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund allocate funds to implement its antiretroviral treatment programme.

Elaborating on the gender aspect of the endemic, the representative of the Netherlands, also speaking for Belgium and Luxembourg, said that 4,000 young women and girls become infected with HIV/AIDS every week globally.  Sex workers are seven times more likely to live with HIV compared to adults who are not sex workers.  “It is urgent to reach sex workers with condoms, HIV testing and treatment,” she stressed, declaring:  “The path to end AIDS is a path in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and rights to health for all”.

The representative of the Russian Federation pointed out that the Secretary-General’s report contains controversial and non-consensual concepts, such as “comprehensive sexuality education”, “vulnerable populations” and “gender-responsive and human rights-based HIV prevention and treatment programmes”.  Rejecting the report’s arbitrary interpretation of criminal liability for same-sex relations, drug use and sex-industry work as “harmful”, he underscored the importance of respecting national priorities, development strategies and ways of life.  “We regret that the authors of this document once more turned a blind eye to this key principle — a principle pivotal to the achievement of global solidarity in the combat against HIV infections,” he asserted.

In other business, the Assembly adopted — without a vote — a resolution (document A/78/L.71) proclaiming 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives.  The representative of Mongolia, who introduced the text, highlighted the role of cooperatives in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, noting that there are about 3 million cooperatives, with 12 per cent of people on the planet being members of these cooperatives.  A soft launch of the Year will take place in New York on 9 July 2024.  It will be officially launched in New Delhi during the week of 25-30 November 2024.

Opening Remarks

JÖRUNDUR VALTÝSSON (Iceland), Vice President of the General Assembly , delivered opening remarks on behalf of Dennis Francis (Trinidad and Tobago), President of the General Assembly.  “The global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic stands as a multilateral success story — having made remarkable gains,” he said, noting that since peaking in 2004, the number of HIV/AIDS-related deaths has significantly declined.  Moreover, easier accessibility to HIV/AIDS treatment, increased equity in health systems and improved access to education and health care — including improved prevention, testing and treatment services — have averted almost 20.8 million HIV/AIDS-related deaths over the past three decades.  “Despite these gains, more work is needed to completely end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 3.3,” he stressed.

He reported that millions still lack access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment — and gender inequalities, stigma, and discrimination persist as major barriers to those services.  Additionally, there is untapped potential for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, and the funding gap for national responses — especially in developing countries — is widening and concerning.  “Therefore, we must scale up national and regional interventions and responses — and forge strong multistakeholder partnerships to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030,” he said, urging:  “To achieve our goals, we must keep HIV/AIDS high on the multilateral agenda” and close the financing gaps, address technology transfer, and improve access to medicines, diagnostics, and other health products in developing countries.  It is also imperative to significantly scale up research and development and capacity-building, including for local pharmaceutical production.

Given that the HIV/AIDS challenge extends beyond the public health sector, a comprehensive response — with a human rights perspective and a development lens — is crucial, he went on to say, underscoring the need to build on the commitments made in the Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage — to improve the capacity of national health systems to deliver quality, affordable and accessible health-care for all, including HIV/AIDS interventions.  Proposing the full use of upcoming events, especially the next High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in 2026, he said it is vital to streamline and accelerate efforts and ensure that “we are on track to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030”.  The path ahead is, indeed, challenging.  “But with our collective will to fully implement the commitments made in the latest Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS:  Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030, we can accelerate our efforts to overcome the obstacles and end this epidemic once and for all, leaving no one behind,” he stressed.

AMINA J. MOHAMMED, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations , speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, highlighted progress on the vital issue of HIV/AIDS:  “We have an inspirational story to tell — globally, more than three quarters of those living with HIV are receiving life-saving treatment — almost 30 million people.”  Access to therapy has expanded rapidly across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific — together, home to almost 80 per cent of people living with HIV.  This is the most outstanding public health achievement of recent times, she observed, adding that “if this progress is maintained, we are on course to reach a key global milestone — 34 million people receiving HIV treatment”.  That puts the international community on track to reach the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. 

“This is a cause of celebration at a time when many of the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely off-track,” she pointed out, stressing that the progress made in AIDS response is a demonstration of what can be achieved when decision-makers collaborate, follow the science, invest adequately, tackle inequality, protect human rights and let communities lead the way.  However, AIDS still claims lives every minute and the progress made is under threat as resources are declining, she cautioned, declaring:  “Let’s build on the immense progress we have made and finish the job together.” 

The representative of Australia , also speaking for Canada and New Zealand , welcomed the progress made in tackling HIV/AIDS, including the achievement of targets in Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe, as well as the increased access to antiviral therapy.  Noting that this demonstrates the value of “collective efforts, global solidarity and a whole of society approach”, he said it must not cause complacency.  9.2 million people living with HIV did not have access to antiretroviral treatment in 2024, he noted also noting the large number of adolescent girls and young women who become infected with HIV globally.

Stressing the importance of a human-rights-based approach, he said this is a necessity to achieve progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS.  “Countries that have seen the biggest progress have met their obligations under international human rights law to remove societal and structural barriers that put people in harm’s way and prevent them from accessing health and other services,” he pointed out.  Health and other services must be open to all, particularly key populations, including transgender people, who must remain free from stigma and discrimination, arrest and imprisonment, he said, also stressing the importance of a multisectoral approach. 

The representative of Brazil expressed concern that, despite remarkable progress made, HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are not declining fast enough to reach the global goal and targets set.  For its part, his country established an Inter-ministerial Committee for the Elimination of Tuberculosis and Other Socially Determined Diseases in 2023.  In 2024, the Committee developed the Healthy Brazil Programme to eliminate HIV/AIDS as a public health issue by 2030.  Brazil has consistently advanced in the prevention and care of HIV/AIDS thanks to its unified health system, which guarantees universal and free-of-charge access to prevention, treatment and diagnosis. Through the national health system, 800,000 people are assisted with free antiretroviral drugs — a steady increase from 2022.  To ensure early detection among key populations, no-cost HIV self-tests are distributed, he added.  

The representative of Cuba reaffirmed his country’s commitment to combating HIV/AIDS, “a battle we have been fighting for more than two decades”.  Despite the progress made, inequalities in access to health persist, and “we must join our efforts to eradicate this disease once and for all”, he stated, underscoring the need to promote South-South cooperation for the benefit of other countries in the region and the rest of the world — mainly the African continent — with technology transfer projects.  Spotlighting Cuba’s significant progress in combating HIV/AIDS, he said it is the first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission and is striving to reach the 95-95-95 goal.  Nevertheless, he said that the economic blockade imposed by the United States has hindered Cuba’s efforts, causing million-dollar losses in the health sector.

The representative of the Philippines , stressing the importance of multilateralism, human rights and “community and country leadership”, said his country is facing one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the western Pacific region.  Its strategic plan to tackle this ensures early diagnosis and treatment, ample testing sites and medications.  “Sustainable and equitable funding is needed to stem the rising numbers,” he said, reiterating the Secretary-General’s call for increased domestic and international donor allocations for the HIV response in middle-income countries.  Stressing the need for equitable access to medicines and health technologies, he said the Philippines has modernized its approach to HIV prevention and treatment and is tackling discrimination against people living with the disease, utilizing a lifecycle approach and expanding coverage of young key populations.  

The representative of the Netherlands , also speaking for Belgium and Luxembourg , said that 40 years since the HIV/AIDS pandemic began, it is still not over.  AIDS claimed a life every minute in 2022, and around 9.2 million people still miss out on treatment.  Women and girls are still disproportionately affected, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.  Globally, 4,000 young women and girls become infected with HIV/AIDS every week.  “Too often, women and girls are denied economic autonomy, deprived of control over their physical and mental health, including sexual reproductive health and rights,” she pointed out, noting that the Secretary-General’s report emphasizes the need for comprehensive sexuality education.  It also highlights the need to close the gender inequalities for adolescent girls and young women.

Some women are at greater risk than others, she said, citing global epidemiological evidence, which demonstrates that sex workers are seven times more likely to live with HIV compared to adults who are not sex workers. “It is urgent to reach sex workers with condoms, HIV testing and treatment,” she stressed.  Community-led services are also key on the path to end AIDS.  “However, community-led responses are under-recognized, under-resourced, and in some places, even under attack,” she warned.  The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) must be fully funded.  Welcoming the recommendations of the Secretary-General’s report, she declared:  “The path to end AIDS is a path in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and rights to health for all”.

The representative of Haiti recognized that despite the progress reached in combating HIV, the scourge remains a major global crisis. In 2021, Governments took on the commitment of eradicating this epidemic, he said, noting that, according to the data provided by UNAIDS, since the peak achieved in 1995, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by 60 per cent and HIV-related deaths by 70 per cent.  Also, over 30 million people have access to HIV treatment.  Haiti has made enormous strides in the struggle to stabilize the epidemic — from 2017 to 2022, HIV/AIDS incidents dropped by 25 per cent; between 2018 and 2023, the number of AIDS-related deaths fell by 50 per cent; and the number of new infections dropped by 25 per cent.  However, despite the progress made, Haiti continues to face numerous challenges linked to mounting insecurity, he added.

The representative of Thailand said it is very crucial to integrate HIV prevention, testing and treatment services into primary health care and universal health coverage.  “Doing so increases access to such services for all those at risk,” he said, adding that his country has expanded its health benefit package to increase access to cost-effective self-tests to encourage early detection while also addressing stigmatization.  Also underscoring the importance of a community-led and key-population-driven response, he highlighted Thailand’s national community health worker certification programme on HIV/AIDS for and by people living with that condition.  Stigma and discrimination continue to be societal barriers to HIV response, he said, noting that his country is promoting an understanding of HIV human rights and gender diversity in this regard. 

The representative of Zimbabwe reaffirmed his country’s unwavering commitment to eradicating HIV/AIDS and fulfilling the pledges made in 2021 to end the epidemic by 2030.  Citing a reduction in new HIV/AIDS infection in sub-Saharan Africa as “encouraging,” he said this progress “must not be cause for complacency, as there is much still to be done towards the attainment of our goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030”.  His country has successfully implemented programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.  Community health workers in the local organizations have played a pivotal role in reaching underserved populations, improving HIV testing rates and ensuring better follow-up and care for people living with HIV.  The Government instituted a novel 3 per cent tax on corporate profits and personal incomes to bridge donor resource gaps and finance programmes.  Educating youth about HIV/AIDS has proven effective with schools and universities incorporating this subject into their curriculum, he said.

The representative of Mexico underscored that multilateralism and international cooperation can generate tangible results for the most vulnerable populations.  “Without a doubt, combating HIV is a success story for multilateralism and the principle of putting the individual at the heart of our global efforts,” she said.  In 2022, 1.3 million people suffered an HIV infection, compared to 3.2 million in 1995.  And since 2010, global infections have decreased by 38 per cent, while 76 per cent of infected people receive treatment.  However, “much remains to be done”, she observed, noting barriers such as gender inequality, stigma, discrimination and access to health services.  The Summit of the Future represents an additional opportunity to strengthen States’ collective work in the fight against HIV.  In Mexico, at the end of 2021, there were an estimated 1.5 million new HIV infections, compared to 3.2 million people in 1996 — a reduction of 54 per cent, she said, adding that her Government has applied an HIV prevention and care model.

The representative of South Africa , applauding the progress made in African countries, said his country too has made remarkable strides, with a positive decline in overall HIV prevalence amongst adults — 90 per cent of whom are aware of their HIV status.   Ninety-nine per cent of those diagnosed with HIV are on antiretroviral treatment.  Highlighting the launch of the South African chapter of the Global Alliance to End Aids in Children, he said it helps parents protect their children from vertical transmission of HIV.  Stressing the need to mobilize political leadership for an equitable response to end AIDS by 2030, he called for a strong multilateral system and a multisectoral approach that promotes human rights.  It is vital to combat stigma, discrimination and other negative social determinants such as harmful gender norms, gender-based violence and unequal economic opportunities.  Stressing the importance of universal health coverage and international solidarity in issues of global concern, he said the decline of funding is deeply concerning. 

The representative of the Russian Federation detailed the implementation of his country’s 2030 strategy to combat the spread of HIV infection, underscoring that, compared to 2021, the number of tests performed in the Russian Federation increased by more than 23 per cent to 51 million. Thanks to these actions, “we’ve seen a high rate of detection of HIV infections at early stages, as well as a sustained decrease in new cases”.  He said that the Secretary-General’s report contains controversial and non-consensual concepts, such as “comprehensive sexuality education”, “vulnerable populations” and “gender-responsive and human rights-based HIV prevention and treatment programmes”.  Statements that the principle of “undetectable” equals “untransmissible” are unacceptable, so is the report’s arbitrary interpretation of criminal liability for same-sex relations, drug use and work in the sex industry as “harmful”, he said, underscoring the importance of respecting national priorities, development strategies and ways of life.  “We regret that the authors of this document once more turned a blind eye to this key principle — a principle pivotal to the achievement of global solidarity in the combat against HIV infections,” he said.

The representative of Poland underscored that despite the unquestionable progress achieved at the global level in combating HIV/AIDS, the epidemic remains a significant threat to global public health.  Noting that his country was among the first Central European countries to offer wide and free access to diagnostics, antiretroviral treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS — including those at risk of marginalization — he said that each year, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund allocate funds that ensure the implementation of the antiretroviral treatment programme.  Ukrainian refugees account for approximately 20 per cent of all HIV patients in Poland, he said, adding that his Government provides them with treatment and care, as well as comprehensive social, psychological, economic and medical assistance.  He further emphasized that to accelerate global efforts, the international community must increase efficiency in early diagnosis of HIV and improve the ability to respond quickly to crisis scenarios entailing HIV outbreaks. 

The representative of India highlighted community initiatives and projects in her country, including targeted interventions and schemes that focus on providing services to high-risk groups and bridge populations.  “The biggest breakthrough came with the expansion of antiretroviral therapy,” she said, adding that as of December 2022, 1.5 million people living with HIV in her country were receiving this life-saving treatment.  The National AIDS Control Organization has been instrumental in scaling up services and ensuring that these treatments are accessible and affordable, she said, pointing to concerted efforts to tackle the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.  The country has put in place a “rights-based and equity-driven approach”, she said, adding that prevention efforts extend to priority populations such as people in prisons and young key populations in hard-to-reach areas.

The representative of Japan said that his country has been a steadfast member of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board since its establishment in 1996.  Tokyo’s firm commitment to the global HIV agenda aligns with its broader focus on universal health coverage and preparedness for future pandemics.  Outlining key measures to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, he said that health services must reach the most vulnerable populations and that strategic collaboration between finance and health authorities is essential to securing sustainable funding for HIV/AIDS responses. “Japan has been at the forefront of developing and providing child-friendly HIV treatments and effective HIV testing and treatments for low- and middle-income countries,” he stressed, pledging the country’s unwavering dedication to achieving universal health coverage, based on human security.  “Let this UN General Assembly be a catalyst for action, solidarity, and hope for a future free from AIDS,” he said.

The representative of the United Kingdom said that the Secretary-General’s report presents causes for celebration, such as data showing that more than three quarters of people living with HIV globally are receiving life-saving treatment.  However, it also presents causes for concern, he observed, noting that HIV remains more likely to affect young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and key populations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender+ people, elsewhere in the world.  Accordingly, he underlined the need for community-led responses and greater attention to HIV prevention.  As a significant funder of the HIV response, London remains committed to seeing this ambition achieved, and to ending AIDS-related deaths and preventing new HIV infections.  It also recognizes the benefit of multilateralism in bringing nations together to confront complex global challenges through a universal approach.  “Without action on the barriers stopping us from tackling the AIDS epidemic, we risk sliding backwards and losing our hard-won gains,” he cautioned.

The representative of China , noting that global epidemics such as AIDS and COVID-19 show that no country is immune to infectious diseases, said “our destiny is intertwined.”  Stressing the need to put people first, he said his Government has actively fulfilled its commitments under SDG 3.  After many years of efforts, bloodborne transmission of the disease has been virtually halted, while rates of diagnosis and treatment have increased, he said, also noting the improved coverage of antiretroviral treatment, among other achievements.  China’s national AIDS prevention strategy combines prevention and treatment, he said, reaffirming commitment to global AIDS prevention programmes, technical exchanges with Global South countries as well as active engagement with UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The representative of Namibia said that her country is home to more than 200,000 people living with HIV, acknowledging the great importance of the work carried out by UNAIDS.  Its commitment to the 95-95-95 targets is prioritized in its strategic health targets.  Namibia has achieved 94-97-95 by 2023 and prides itself in recently becoming the first African country — and the first high-burden country in the world — to reach a significant milestone on the path towards eliminating vertical mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and viral hepatitis B.  Currently, 99 per cent of all children born to HIV-positive mothers are born HIV-free.  “This achievement is anchored in an approach that prioritized the decentralization of services to support community-based antiretroviral therapy and improve access to treatment,” she said, adding that partnerships remain an important component of its national response, coupled with a political commitment that prioritizes access to resources, especially domestic resources.

The representative of the United States said that “as a global community, we have made enormous progress in preventing and treating HIV”.  Despite these achievements, 39 million people continue to live with HIV, including more than 1 million in the United States.  HIV remains a serious health, security and development threat and ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic remains Washington, D.C.’s priority, he said, adding:  “We must sustain the gains we have made” and ensure that essential lessons are not ignored. Highlighting the importance and effectiveness of ensuring access to health services for members of vulnerable populations, including those facing intersecting forms of discrimination, he stated:  “We have to act as if our lives depended on getting this right”.  Also, ensuring that the response is adequately resourced and framed by resilient national systems is pivotal, he added.

The representative of Uganda , reaffirming commitment to ending inequalities and getting back on track to end AIDS by 2030, highlighted his country’s ambitious targets in its third national development plan.  Over the last four decades, the national campaigns aiming to tackle this problem have resulted in a decline in HIV/AIDS prevalence, he said, noting numerous milestones.  Pointing to a 35 per cent reduction in new infections from 97,000 in 2010 to 38,000 in 2023 and a 54 per cent reduction in annual AIDS-related deaths from 37,000 in 2010 to 17,000 in 2023, he also highlighted a decline in stigma and discrimination.  These gains were made possible by support from development partners, the private sector, religious and cultural leaders and people living with HIV.  Uganda prioritizes primary interventions, expanding HIV testing services and promoting behavioral change, including through condom promotion and safe male circumcision, he said.

Facebook Twitter Email Print LinkedIn