The case for an HIV cure and how to get there

Abstract

In light of the increasing global burden of new HIV infections, growing financial requirements, and shifting funding landscape, the global health community must accelerate the development and delivery of an HIV cure to complement existing prevention modalities. An effective curative intervention could prevent new infections, overcome the limitations of antiretroviral treatment, combat stigma and discrimination, and provide a sustainable financial solution for pandemic control. We propose steps to plan for an HIV cure now, including defining a target product profile and establishing the HIV Cure Africa Acceleration Partnership (HCAAP), a multidisciplinary public-private partnership that will catalyse and promote HIV cure research through diverse stakeholder engagement. HCAAP will convene stakeholders, including people living with HIV, at an early stage to accelerate the design, social acceptability, and rapid adoption of HIV-cure products.

Figure 1

Year-on-year change in resource availability for HIV in low-income and middle-income countries Growth in total HIV resource availability for low-income and middle-income countries has declined in the past decade, with the largest year-on-year percentage decline since 2000 occurring in 2018. Dashed line is the linear regression best-fit line.

Figure 2

Total HIV resource availability for low-income and middle-income countries Total HIV resource availability for LMICs has stagnated in recent years and increasingly shifts towards domestic funding.

Figure 3

The HCAAP model HCAAP=HIV Cure Africa Acceleration Partnership. NGOs=non-governmental organisations. TPP=target product profile. PLHIV=people living with HIV.