Directing Focus

A group of prominent scientists and AIDS policy experts say that because there are now several drugs on the market that effectively control HIV in the body, AIDS research should shift its focus to finding the long-sought-after cure. "Chronic suppressive therapy is limited by its cost, the requirement of lifelong adherence, and the unknown effects of long-term treatment," the experts write in the journal Science about the need to discover a way to eradicate HIV reservoirs from the body. Instead of devoting time and resources toward devising additional therapies, these experts urge for a public-private partnership to develop methods to purge HIV'much in the way cancer experts came together to fight that disease. "Such a multifaceted approach should also be applied to the effort to cure HIV infection," the experts write. "This will require behavioral and biological tools to prevent HIV infection; safe, affordable, and nontoxic therapies for initial control of HIV infection; and new interventions that can achieve a drug-free remission of viremia in some patients."