‘Fighting A Double Stigma’

Use of prescription erectile dysfunction (ED) medication was significantly associated with sexual risk behavior in HIV-positive men, according to data presented at IDWeek 2014 by Greer Burkholder, MD, of the Infectious Diseases Department, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

AIDS researchers and policymakers from around the globe are gathering in Melbourne, Australia, for a major international conference that starts this Monday. They’ll be mourning dozens of colleagues who died in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

But the work of the conference will continue, and one of the major topics to be discussed is expanding the use of a pill that prevents HIV.

Sound science takes time. As Richard Jefferys of Treatment Action Group explained in a recent webinar, “HIV Cure Research—Getting Past the Media Hype,” a number of clinical trials are underway in the quest for an HIV cure, but none of the interventions currently under study are expected to cure people of HIV. Rather, those studies provide essential information to get cure science to “the next round” of development, said Jefferys.
Jefferys and webinar co-host David Evans, director of research advocacy at Project Inform and community advisory board member with the Delaney AIDS Research Enterprise, unpacked the concept of “cure,” outlined the types of cure currently under study, and highlighted key questions at the heart of cure research today.