The end of the forty year AIDs epidemic may be in sight.
In an interview with Axios, America’s top infectious disease scientist, Anthony Fauci, revealed that stopping the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030 is “achievable.” Fauci said an HIV vaccine remains elusive, but a “combination of things,” including a pre-exposure prophylactic drug, may eliminate the global scourge.
Fauci is also holding out hope for a “home run.”
There are currently 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. Globally, the United Nations hoped to reduce new HIV infections to 500,000 a year by 2020. Unfortunately, that goal was not met – there were 1.7 million new infections last year.
But Winnie Byanyima, who leads the U.N.’s fight against HIV/AIDs, shares Fauci’s optimism. “Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is still within reach—many countries are showing that rapid progress against HIV is possible when evidence-informed strategies and human rights-based approaches are adopted,” she said in April.
CNBC provides context on America’s fight against the deadly disease:
In 2019, the Trump administration announced a pledge to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by 2030, a goal that public health advocates have cheered and sought for years. However, some advocates later expressed concerns that the pandemic’s impact on medical care would lead to a rise in new HIV infections.
“Obviously, when you shut down society, the accessibility for testing and the chain for drug availability can be disrupted the same way everything is disrupted, including vaccinations for children,” Fauci told the House Committee on Appropriations and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services last month.
In his interview with Axios, Fauci revealed that the fight against HIV/AIDS has been one of the main focuses of his career. “I’m probably one of the few individuals who was there from the very first day that we realized we were dealing with a new disease,” he said.
Fauci described his frustrations with early setbacks, saying he still experiences post-traumatic stress related to his failure to stop the disease early on.
“That began a 40-year journey that I’m still on, because even though it’s been sidetracked a fair amount by COVID-19, HIV/AIDS is still one of the most important things,” he said.