NIH SPOTLIGHTS HIV CURE RESEARCH

November 15, 2016 • By AIDS.gov

In two Facebook Live events from NIAID’s Strategies for an HIV Cure conference this week we learned about advances in HIV cure research from leaders in HIV science.

Dr. Fauci Reflects on the State of HIV Cure Research

As the third biennial conference got underway on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, we had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Rich Wolitski. Dr. Fauci is the Director of NIH’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Dr. Wolitski is the Director of the HHS Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy. They spoke about the state of HIV cure research and implications of recent promising findings from research led by Dr. Fauci’s lab at NIH (read NIAID’s related news release). They also discussed investments by NIH in other areas of HIV research – treatment as prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, in particular – that have produced tools that can lead to the end of the epidemic if we implement them.

Watch their conversation:

Dr. Dieffenbach Discusses Approaches to HIV Cure Research

We later heard from Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Director of NIAID’s Division of AIDS, and his colleague Anne Rancourt. They discussed various approaches to HIV cure research being supported by NIH investments as well as why HIV cure research is particularly challenging. They also discussed the recent findings from Dr. Fauci’s lab and the next steps following that non-human primate study.

Carl and Anne concluded their conversation with a discussion about the vital role of HIV treatment until there is a cure, including the several benefits of achieving and sustaining durable viral suppression through HIV treatment.

Watch Carl and Anne’s conversation: