NIH Statement on World AIDS Day 2015

Originally posted at NIH News Releases on December 1, 2015 NIH Statement on World AIDS Day 2015 Follow the science to fast-track the end of AIDS. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Carl Dieffenbach, Ph.D., Director, Division of AIDS, NIAID Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., NIH Director When the first cases of what would become known as AIDS were reported in 1981, scientists and physicians did not know the cause and had no therapies to treat those who were infected. Times have changed and today physicians can offer their patients highly effective medicines that work as both treatment and prevention. We can now speak credibly about having within our sights the end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when new HIV infections and deaths due to AIDS are rare. Ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic as we know it will require using antiretroviral therapy (ART) to treat all infected people upon diagnosis, facilitating the implementation of an array of prevention tools including pre-exposure prophylaxis, and eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission. While recent scientific advances demonstrate these objectives are all possible, we must encourage universal HIV testing so that people know their status and are linked to care if infected and linked to a prevention program if at risk of infection. Approximately 50,000 people in the United States are newly infected with HIV each year, and about 1 in 8 of the 1.2 million who currently are infected do not kn...
Source: Dragonfly - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: News from NIH Public Health Source Type: news