Bill Arnold: What are you excited about in the fight against HIV/AIDS?

In this week’s Conversations Blog, I’m outlining some of the points that I find most salient in our continuing fight against HIV/AIDS in the United States. First and foremost, it is imperative that we continue to strive for an effective “cure” (Sustained Virologic Response – SVR – in this case to Antiretroviral Therapies) beyond that which we currently consider to be the standard (“Undetectable” Viral Load). While suppressing the Viral Load in HIV patients is essential to ensuring that they maintain good health, it is also a vital tool in helping to prevent the spread of HIV between serodiscordant sexual partners. While there have been several reports, in recent years, of patients in various nations and circumstances being “effectively cured,” all of these “cures” require a very specific set of requirements in order to undergo one of these treatments (e.g. – having leukemia; being a newborn). That does not even begin to take into account the barriers created and maintained by the costs associated with these types of highly experimental treatments. While these treatments do show some promise (even in several, if not all, of the patients in question have since shown signs of the virus reemerging), it is important that those in the HIV advocacy and education communities proceed with caution in regards to how prominently they feature discussion of these cases; without solid peer reviewing and replicative studies, more information is necessary before we c...
Source: PHRMA - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news