Since the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has claimed tens of millions of lives.
The pandemic has touched every corner of the world, affected young and old, rich and poor and men and women of all backgrounds.
It has been one of the worst scourges in human history, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., a leading HIV/AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Friday (October 23) upon receiving the Centennial C.-E. A. Winslow Medal Award from the Yale School of Public Health.
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But Fauci argued that much more remains to be done in the area of treatment if the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections is to be further slowed or eliminated. This includes regularly testing people for infection (with some at-risk groups being tested multiple times annually) and immediately providing comprehensive care (such as antiretroviral drugs) for those who are HIV-positive. In the area of viral suppression, Fauci pointed out that Rwanda is currently doing better than the United States.
Prevention is equally important, and people at the highest risk for the disease should be offered counseling and provided a “toolbox of prevention,” options that include giving at-risk people antiretroviral drugs (pre-exposure prophylaxis) that lessen their chances of ever becoming infected.
“Treatment as prevention works!” he said.
Fauci closed by touching on efforts to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS, as well as a vaccine. Eradicating the virus has proven to be extremely difficult and a variety of innovative approaches have either failed or are still in early stages of experimentation. If a cure is discovered, it will need to be simple, safe and scalable to treat the millions of people currently infected, he said.