Universal HIV Treatment, If Achieved, Would Not Mean Eradication of AIDS

In this post in BMJ's "Yankee Doodling," Douglas Kamerow, chief scientist at RTI International and an associate editor for the journal, reflects on the possibility of achieving an AIDS-free generation "if somehow we succeeded in getting all HIV positive people in the world identified and under long term treatment." He writes that while there has been "astonishing progress against AIDS," "two concerns immediately arise: the magnitude of the work remaining to find and continuously treat all those infected, and the confusion between that treatment (even if it is somehow universally successful) and actual eradication of the disease." He concludes, "It is a rosy scenario, but even if it came true it still would not spell the end of the HIV story," because "[w]e have no vaccine, and the virus keeps mutating" (8/14).

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