Scientists reflect on advancements in HIV treatments

There has been much research conducted on HIV and preventing the spread of the disease. For this reason, a number of scientists recently gathered at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention to address medical advancements and the future of HIV treatments.

"The developments in biomedical science over the past few years are very encouraging but at the same time only reinforce the need to maintain a robust HIV/AIDS research agenda," said Stefano Vella, IAS 2011 local co-chair and research director at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita.

The scientists discussed several methods of prevention that have been studied and tested for their efficacy. One of these is a combination of daily oral tenofovir and emtricitabine that can be used by non-infected homosexual men. This treatment was shown to be 44 percent effective in preventing the spread of the disease in an iPrEX study.

For women who are at risk for contracting HIV, a vaginal microbicide gel applied prior to sexual encounters was found to successfully inhibit infection in 39 percent of cases during the CAPRISA 004 study.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV.