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HIV
STILL AN IMPENDING THREAT TO MANKIND
H
IV research has come a long way since
the disease was discovered in the
1980's. Antiretroviral therapy was a
major milestone that has changed the lives
of millions, but the goal now is to nd an
HIV cure before 2020. Over the past several
decades, researchers have learned a lot
about the human immunodeciency virus
(HIV) and the disease it causes, acquired
immunodeciency syndrome (AIDS).
WHEN WILL WE HAVE AN HIV CURE?
Although there are several approaches that could eventually bring a functional HIV cure, there are still
some challenges ahead. One of the biggest concerns around any HIV treatments is the virus’ ability to
quickly mutate and develop resistance, and for many of these new approaches there is still no data on
whether the virus will be able to become resistant.
So far, none of these functional cures have reached late-stage clinical testing, meaning it doesn’t seem
likely that we will meet the goal of having an HIV cure by 2020.
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DECEMBER 2018