The focus of the 2016 International AIDS Conference has on access to necessary antiretrovirals, equity and making sure no-one is left behind. But there is a funding gap that needs to be addressed.
Studies have suggested that women using a particular kind of injectable contraceptive are more susceptible to HIV infection. Research in mice offers new insights.
Taking antiretrovirals is key to reducing HIV infection rates, but the challenge lies in making sure people who know they are infected actually take the drugs.
Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Thomas Aagaard Rasmussen, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
HIV research continues to search for a cure. The focus is on developing therapies to cure HIV infection or allow people with HIV to safely stop antiretroviral therapy and keep the virus under control.
The International AIDS Conference is more than just a talk shop. The platform it offers for engagement between governments, scientists and civil society is of undisputable value.
Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council
The 90-90-90 strategy is an attempt to get the HIV epidemic under control by adopting a ‘test and treat’ approach. This is part of the plan to eliminate AIDS by 2030.
Mental health problems need to be addressed to control the HIV epidemic, but such treatment is not yet part of the HIV care package in sub-Saharan Africa.
In South Africa, female sex workers go for HIV tests, receive counselling and use condoms – but don’t access antiretroviral treatments. More options are now available and can change this.
Understanding what causes diseases is a life-and-death matter. It is a complicated issue that has generated a great deal of debate in the medical community.
In countries such as South Africa with a high burden of TB and HIV, vitamin D could be an extremely effective and cheap weapon to include in the arsenal against TB and HIV.
Antiretroviral treatment has been free at Nigeria’s health facilities. But the other costs involved for those living with HIV, such as transport and food, have been problematic.
If the vaginal ring becomes available for commercial use it will become one of the tools in the HIV prevention toolbox for women alongside female condoms and daily pre-exposure prophylaxis.
Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Pharmaco-economics/pharmaco-epidemiology in the Departments of Health Administration & Management and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria