AIDS work led by UNC scientist wins high praise

The News & Observer
December 23, 2011
BY JAY PRICE
CHAPEL HILL -- An HIV discovery from researchers led by a UNC-Chapel Hill scientist is the biggest scientific breakthrough of 2011, according to the prestigious journal Science. 

The study found that early treatment with anti-retroviral drugs sharply cut the risk that infected patients will transmit HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS. That finding could help slow the spread of the disease, perhaps dramatically....

"In combination with other promising clinical trials, the results have galvanized efforts to end the world's AIDS epidemic in a way that would been inconceivable even a year ago," said an editorial appearing in the journal, which went on to cite a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month that the goal of an AIDS-free generation is ambitious, but now possible....

Dr. Myron S. Cohen - a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and public health at UNC-CH and the director of the UNC-CH Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases - is the principal investigator of the study, which he designed and organized.

The study found that people infected with the virus are 96 percent less likely to spread it to a partner if they begin a regimen of drugs sooner than normal.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of that finding. The disease is estimated by the US Agency for International Development to have killed more than 25 million people since first reported in 1981. It also costs billions of dollars worldwide each year in treatment and prevention efforts and lost productivity.

The nine-nation, $73 million study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. It began in 2005 and had been expected to last until 2015. But the results were so important that an independent monitoring board recommended last spring that researchers release their findings early and tell the study participants.  Click here to read more.