November 5, 2008 We need a cure for AIDS. We can't treat our way
out of this epidemic. Anti-HIV therapy is a lifelong commitment,
accompanied by many life-altering and some potentially life-
threatening side effects. And for every person placed on
treatment, two to three are newly infected. In 2007 alone there
were 2.7 million new infections, and only 31 percent of those
who needed treatment received it. Viral reservoirs -- cells and
tissues in which HIV remains dormant, beyond the reach of anti-
HIV drugs but poised to grow at any moment -- persist for the
life of an infected person. And while all currently available
anti-HIV drugs suppress the virus, they cannot eliminate it.
Given this context, a brief report in February 2008 by a group
of physicians from Germany appeared to change everything when
presented as a poster at the annual Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. It described a 40-year-
old man -- an American working in Berlin -- whose HIV had been
under good control for se