Ahead of AIDS Conference, New Reasons for Hope

Experts say headway has been made in prevention and treatment, but challenges remain

July 19, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Katherine Tapp, 26, of New York City, left, fills out forms as Natrussa Williams, an HIV tester and counselor, waits for the results of Tapp's oral HIV test, which takes about 20 minutes, at the HIV Testing Room at the Penn Branch of the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles, in southeast Washington, Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

To keep pessimism from setting in as it did after HAART turned out not to be the end-all-be-all, people should think of eradicating HIV in stages, Gange said. "I think first it would make sense to see strategies for bringing rates of HIV infection down 50 percent or 90 percent and that would be great, and then reevaluate," he said.

The news about Truvada and the data on preventing HIV transmission by early antiretroviral therapy are great, Gange said. "These are encouraging and give us a set of phase-one strategies."

More information

You can learn more about the International AIDS Society and its news by visiting the AIDS 2012 Guide to Community Involvement.