Ending AIDS

Recent research advances have led to a growing conviction that the tools now exist to end local HIV/AIDS epidemic and to end the disease worldwide as “a public health threat” by 2030. But to date, only 15 million of the 37 million people living with the virus have access to the  antiretroviral medicines that both save lives and prevent transmission. Many governments also have fractured treatment and prevention programs. And on the basic research front, scientists still have their work cut out for them. Fundamental questions persist about where the virus hides in the body and which immune responses most effectively can foil it—and answers may lead to the still elusive HIV vaccine and cure.