Will there be a cure for HIV/AIDS? Making the dream a reality

Abstract

It has been more than 30 years since AIDS was introduced in people's daily life, and it is a milestone that causes taboos, myths and prejudices. At that time, a patient told me his feelings, and he was very convincing: “I am horrified of living and afraid of dying.” Three decades later, AIDS infection is not a death sentence anymore. First, doctors could make that infected patients did not die from the disease; then, that the medication which kept them alive was not so toxic. And finally, that the treatments were more comfortable. And once at this point, the possibility that the virus may disappear from the body is a more realistic goal than ever. The story of AIDS has changed and, for the first time, we can foresee in the short term the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Now it is not about whether the cure is possible or not, but about when we will have it. This current momentum, so hard to get, should be maintained. We have never been so close to achieving this goal. Although the end of the pandemic is close, this is not enough. It is worrying that some world leaders have absolved themselves of responsibility for not stopping or at least having understood the explosion of the pandemic as if it was a natural disaster. “Zero tolerance for HIV” requires a profound understanding of the stigma and discrimination of the infected people to finally get rid of the epidemic of fear and the devastation that the pandemic caused.

Keywords

• HIV
• AIDS
• Cure
• Prejudices