Call For A Cure

Project Inform joins call for greater commitment and cooperation to identify a cure for HIV/AIDS
March 5, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A strong arsenal of antiretroviral medications has succeeded in making HIV a chronic but manageable disease for most people infected with the virus able to access them. But they do not actually cure HIV infection or AIDS. And so, a group of leading HIV experts has come together to call for a major new commitment and better collaboration among industry, academic, government and patient advocacy leaders to identify therapies that will actually cure HIV infection, or drive it into remission.

"Current HIV medications have radically transformed the epidemic and restored or prolonged life for countless people. But the need for decades of their use by those patients who can actually get them is extremely expensive and their side effects can be profound,” said Dana Van Gorder, Project Inform’s Executive Director. “Good as they are, existing drugs are also incapable of eliminating latent reservoirs of the virus that go into deep hiding in the body. Novel new strategies must be developed to correct this problem. Today’s scientific goal must be to actually cure HIV infection or, perhaps more realistically, force it into a state of remission that will allow patients to stop taking antiretroviral drugs. Accomplishing this will be difficult, but not impossible, and demands a level of focus, collaboration and funding that does not currently exist.” - via Project Inform

I'm ready for a cure. How about you?