What's up with UNAIDS and HIV cure?

[solesurvivor]

Ever notice that UNAIDS never ever put their concern on cure research?When I hit their website and type the word cure on the search bar,not a single article came up that related to any cure research.For a leading international organisation that fights hiv,it seems that they're being too conservative on their method.I mean,prevention is important and all,but they do have the power,money and workers to chase a more permanent solution.It's rather odd,isn't it?Not just UNAIDS,it seems that plenty of credible International Organisation seems to choose to fight a losing game by only supporting prevention.Any comment on this?and please less conspiracy theory,cause I believe there are rational reasons behind this.

[Ann]

I don't know where you get the idea that UNAIDS has plenty of money - as far as I'm aware, they are as cash-strapped as the rest of us during these tough economic times. They're struggling to meet the existing needs of prevention and treatment, particularly in underdeveloped countries where hiv is running rampant.

They're leaving research and development to entities who are better equipped to deal with R&D and doing what they do best - getting treatment and prevention into resource poor settings.

That's my take on it anyway.

[leatherman]

They're leaving research and development to entities who are better equipped to deal with R&D and doing what they do best - getting treatment and prevention into resource poor settings.

that's my guess too.

We're only just a few decades into this epidemic so many organizations around now were developed to implement any and all plans to slow down the amazingly high death HIV had when it first came onto the scene. At first a lot of visible effort was put into stopping infected people from dying, while a lot of invisible research has been going on behind the scenes for nearly as many years trying to understand HIV, develop more and better meds, and looking for the elusive "cure" that kills HIV without killing the patient.

Now that the death toll has been so dramatically reduced (but still not in all parts of the world), a lot of visible effort is put into education and prevention, while in the background the scientists are getting closer every day to developing a vaccine and/or cure.


If you look at the UNAIDS website you'll see that their mission is not one of research or reaching the cure; but of practical daily work to combat the problems related to the epidemic at this current point in time.

Targets and commitments

Reducing sexual transmission
Preventing HIV among drug users
Eliminating new HIV infection among children
15 million accessing treatment
Avoiding TB deaths
Closing resource gap
Eliminating gender inequalities
Eliminating stigma and discrimination
Eliminating travel restrictions
Strengthening HIV integration

[Tim Horn]

UNAIDS isn't in the business of research and development -- they are primarily interested in the epidemiology of the epidemic and, importantly, making sure that science is translated into practice throughout the world (e.g., rolling out evidence-based prevention and treatment efforts).

Encouragingly, one major international research group -- the International AIDS Society -- is taking the lead on cure-based science work. Right now, they're doing a lot of strategy work and fundraising, under the direction of HIV's co-discoverer Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, in the hopes of rolling out cure work on an international scale.

Should cure research yield effective results, you can bet UNAIDS will help lead the way in translating the findings and securing the resources necessary to make sterilizing or functional cures possible all over the world.