Fading hopes of finding a cure to HIV is changing the focus of AIDS research
Paris — About 6,000 HIV experts will gather in Paris from Sunday to report advances in HIV/AIDS science, as fading hopes of finding a cure push research into new fields. In their 36-year battle, researchers have always come up short against the virus’ guerrilla tactics — hiding out in human cells and playing dead only to re-emerge and attack as soon as treatment is stopped. Today’s research is about finding ways to keep the virus dormant with as few drugs and side-effects as possible. And, of course, better ways to prevent infection in the first place. "Eradicating the virus from someone, where you completely get rid of every single viral particle, is very difficult, if not impossible," said HIV/AIDS expert Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — a branch of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH). "So what we’re focusing more on is … called an ART (anti-retroviral therapy)-free remission," he said. The new buzzword is "...
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