2016 Was A Banner Year For HIV/AIDS Research

There is still no cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS, which affects approximately 37 million people around the world. But there is reason to hope that the global response to this pandemic is improving.  Fewer people died of HIV in 2015 than at any point in almost 20 years, while new HIV infections are at the lowest point since 1991, the World Health Organization noted in its 2016 progress report. That may be, in part, because at least two million new people began taking antiretroviral therapy in 2015, the largest annual increase ever in the history of the disease.  For World AIDS Day, we asked researchers and experts to weigh in on any other significant scientific discoveries and treatment strides worth celebrating this year. Read on to learn about the strides in vaccine development, functional cures and historical understanding that 2016 brought. 1. Geneticists exonerated “Patient Zero.”  Perhaps no single person has borne more blame for the virus’ arrival in the U.S. than Gaétan Dugas, better known as “Patient Zero.” Dugas was a French Canadian flight attendant who was presumed to have passed the HIV/AIDS virus to gay communities in the U.S. after contracting the disease during an international trip, according to The New York Times. His supposed role in spreading the epidemic (and the first use of the term “Patient Zero”) was chronicled in the seminal 1987 book And The Band Played O...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news