Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children's Center led
research that cured HIV in a toddler. But the budget cuts will
cut into funding for the National Institutes of Health, which
co-funded the HIV research. The National Institutes of Health,
which co-funded the study, stands to lose $1.6 billion of its
$31 billion budget through September as a result of the
sequester, which went into effect on Friday. As the largest
supporter of biomedical research in the United States, it could
slash funding for hundreds of research programs, such as the HIV
case. The NIH, in conjunction with the Foundation for AIDS
Research, also known as amfAR, paid for the research of the
child who was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Chris Collins, vice president of public policy for amfAR, said
there was a "cruel irony" to the timing of the HIV cure
discovery and sequestration. "As we've heard this exciting news
about cure research, the entire AIDS research field is
experiencing a significant cutback," said Collins. "