Global scientific strategy towards an HIV cure

On 28 February 2011, more than 30 scientists gathered for a one-day meeting prior to the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) to launch an international working group on HIV reservoirs and strategies to control them.

Under the auspices of the International AIDS Society, the scientists will guide the development of a global scientific strategy Towards an HIV Cure. The strategy aims at building a global consensus on the state of the HIV reservoirs field and defining scientific priorities that must be addressed by future research to tackle HIV persistency in patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy, the key hurdle impeding any alternative to long-term therapy. This global scientific strategy will help mobilise and focus resources to fund the most promising strategies towards either eradication or a functional cure, and stimulate international research collaborations.

The international scientific working group will be co-chaired by Professor Françse Barré-Sinoussi, International AIDS Society (IAS) President-elect and 2008 Nobel Laureate for Medicine, and Professor Steve Deeks, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Positive Health Program (AIDS Program) at San Francisco General Hospital. The working group will work closely with an advisory board composed of leading advocates and major research stakeholders in HIV cure, including representatives of people living with HIV, funders and clinicians from high prevalence settings. The advisory group will be co-chaired by Pr. Fran殩se Barr笓inoussi and Dr. Jack Whitescarver, Director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health.

This initiative comes on the back of the successful workshop Towards a cure: HIV Reservoirs and strategies to Control Them held in conjunction with the 18th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna in July 2010. [1]

Source: IAS press release. Scientists unite to develop global scientific strategy towards an HIV cure. (28 February 2011).