Jon Cohen will host web chat

Please check out this web chat on cure research hosted by Jon Cohen, a great AIDS science writer. 

3pm EDT, Thurs, May 12, hosted by Jon Cohen:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/live-chata-new-push-to-cure-aids.html

Live Chat: A New Push to Cure AIDS - ScienceNOW

news.sciencemag.org

Speech on a cure for AIDS to the Philadelphia Town Meeting.

Local medical students listen to Dr. Kostman at our town meeting.  
Photo by Harvey Finkle.

There's lots more to say than this--I could talk about the need to actually support (and not just say one supports) new ideas, and back them up with funding. Like the idea that has, so far, cured the Berlin Patient of AIDS. Or the new idea that is curing mice in Southern California. Even if those ideas come from regular doctors, and not AIDS researchers. Or from brilliant researchers who are starved for funding simply because they live in Europe and not the US.

I could talk about the obstacle course thrown up by funders, institutional review boards, the FDA, and other bureaucracies in front of even the best researchers and the most brilliant ideas. We need the brightest scientists, not people who are smart at negotiating red tape or gaming the system because they have to. We are at a pivotal moment in the AIDS pandemic--a moment of great opportunity, if we recognize it, and act.

A cure for AIDS, whether it is developed in Bethesda or Madrid, would save 30 million lives and the US government $17 billion per year. Yet the NIH is spending only $40-$60 million on AIDS cure research. Where are the great philanthropists to support a cure? We need you. We also need President Obama, federal officials, and drug companies to step up. We saw that President Obama called for a cure for AIDS in his World AIDS Day proclamation--the first time a cure has been mentioned since at least 2005. But without the proper support, including more funding, we will lose an opportunity to save millions of lives. 

Can we be the generation that ends the AIDS pandemic?

Here's what I said to our friends in Philadelphia, many of whom are AIDS prevention activists, at our town meeting on a cure.

Los Angeles Town Meeting on AIDS Cure Research

TOWN MEETING ON NEW PROGRESS TOWARD A CURE FOR AIDS

November 3, 7:00 pm

Plummer Park Community Center, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, Rooms 5 & 6

The AIDS Policy Project is holding a public town meeting to discuss some exciting new AIDS cure research, as well as a new grassroots, activist campaign for a cure AIDS.

The meeting will feature a talk by two scientists, Paula Cannon, PhD, from the University of Southern California; and Dr. John A. Zaia, from City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, CA. Both are studying ways to change the immune cells of people with HIV to make them resist HIV infection; the HIV-resistant cells would then replace infected cells. This work follows up on the 2008 case of the Berlin Patient, who was cured of AIDS through a bone marrow transplant using a donor who was born immune to HIV. The event is being co-sponsored by AIDS Project Los Angeles and CIRM, California’s state stem cell agency. The AIDS Policy Project's cure campaign is the subject of the cover story of this month's issue of POZ Magazine (www.POZ.com).

Says Kate Krauss, Executive Director of the AIDS Policy Project, “Most people don’t realize that a patient was cured of AIDS in 2008. California is leading the way in both funding and actually doing the critical research that follows up on that case and might lead to a cure for millions of people. Thirty-three million people have AIDS right now, and most can't get treatment. It’s important for the community to stand up and say, ‘we need a cure.'”

The town meeting is open to the public and anyone with an interest is encouraged to attend. While not required by organizers, RSVP emails from attendees to info@aidspolicyproject.org or call 215-939-7852. For more information about the cure campaign, see www.AIDSPolicyProject.org   Please spread the word.

Our AIDS Cure Campaign Made the Cover of Poz Magazine!!

Please check out www.Poz.com or get a newsstand copy--our TEN MONTH-OLD AIDS cure campaign made the cover of Poz Magazine!! There are five articles in total about a cure for AIDS. 

Also consider going to our web site, pressing the donate button and making a contribution to keep us going: www.AIDSPolicyProject.org

Check back later; we will blog about the articles and also discuss the state of the campaign for a cure for AIDS soon. 


Thanks to Poz for covering the research and activism that are working hand-in-hand to get us to a cure.

Do all AIDS researchers want a cure?

Here at the HIV reservoirs workshop in Vienna, I just spoke to a Dutch researcher. I asked him when he thought there would be a functional cure for AIDS and he said never. He said he is explicitly not interested in finding a cure for AIDS; he is interested in host-virus interactions only. When I seemed surprised, he said--"If I were interested in a particular result, I would prejudice the experiment." He said, "If I were trying to cure some disease, which one would I pick? I'd be lost in the choices. Besides, the best thing to do if you are interested in ending the epidemic is to work in prevention!

I asked if he had ever met a person with AIDS, and he mentioned the patients in his community advisory board. He didn't sound very impressed.

HIV Reservoirs Conference in Vienna. First, the room.

First: The room. The first HIV reservoirs workshop at the IAC is held at the University of Vienna, which appears to be a former palace. There are large statues of Austrian emperors. There are huge paintings of a man I am pretty sure is Louis XIV. The researchers are declaiming from what may or  may not be a throne. When I pan to the ceiling, what you can't quite see are colossal paintings by Klimt. Also, it is 90 degrees, and as the afternoon wore on, the comments and questions to speakers became more and more sharp and annoyed, I think because of the heat. If not for the temperature, I could stay in this room forever. Click on each image to see the full photo.  I'm not sure why the square below is black, but click on it--it works. Next up: The science.