AVAC in the News

In another blow to the decades-long quest for an HIV vaccine, researchers are pulling the plug on the largest ongoing clinical trial after a review in January found the experimental injections provided no protection from the virus that causes AIDS.

The US Government knows how to do smart, effective HIV programming globally — but for the past three years, it has been getting in its own way. That’s because the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest government commitment to global HIV, was placed at risk when President Trump reintroduced the so-called global gag rule, applying it for the first time to PEPFAR.

Over the past 30 years, advances ranging from medical technology to policy implementation have reduced new infections and suppressed the virus for those already living with HIV. There is a lot of excitement about technological innovations already on the market and those that will be available in the near future, including preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which could soon be available as implants instead of daily pills. But progress in the global fight against HIV has been uneven, with the San Francisco Bay Area serving as an example of the global inequities in the disease burden.

There is a problem with the decade's greatest medical moments. Most medical advances originate in rich countries, so they are sometimes out of reach for the world's poor — even when they address health problems more common in low-income countries. Treatment for HIV, for example, became available in the U.S. in 1996 but the rollout in Africa didn't begin until 2002. But some breakthroughs of the past decade have gone on to have a truly global impact.