AEGiS-WSJ: NIH's Fauci Finds Hope Amid Challenges in AIDS Research

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

NIH's Fauci Finds Hope Amid Challenges in AIDS Research

Wall Street Journal Blog - August 7, 2008
Posted by Marilyn Chase

The NIH's Anthony Fauci, who once cautioned that there might never be a traditional vaccine to prevent HIV infection and recently pulled the plug on a troubled vaccine trial, sounded a cautiously optimistic note at the 17th International AIDS Conference yesterday.

"The future for AIDS research looks bright and promising," said Fauci, singling out recent work by Barton Haynes of Duke and Robert Siliciano of Johns Hopkins in illuminating how the virus hides inside the body and suppresses the immune system within days of infection.

Maybe he was just offering a salve to all the bruised spirits here in Mexico City, but his talk marked a change in the often discouraged tone of the NIH's top infectious disease scientist.

"A cure will require very early diagnosis and very aggressive treatment," Fauci said. It won't be easy, he acknowledged, but it's not impossible. Doctors will have to treat people quickly after infection-possibly within days of exposure - before HIV begins to destroy the immune system. Flushing the wily AIDS virus completely from the human lymph system and gut tissues where it hides, Fauci said, would be a long shot for most people. But giving potent antiviral medicines and possibly immune therapy may achieve what he called "a functional cure."

Spiraling costs of reaching universal treatment access ratchet up pressure for more effective prevention to stem the 2.7 million new cases of HIV infection a year. As a practical matter, Fauci cautioned it is "extremely unlikely we can reach and treat - for life - every person with HIV," a group now numbering 33 million and growing.

Regarding vaccines, the ultimate hope for prevention, Fauci sounded a second qualified note of hope. "I believe we will be able to prevent HIV, depending on an individual's genetics," he said citing studies that show people's genes can predispose or protect them from infection.

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