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SPRING 2010 INNOVATIONSThe Newsletter of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research amfAR Launches Cure Consortium ISamfAR PSAA 2001 CURE updated in 2010.qxd:PSA FOR 3/22/10 2:51 HIV PM Page 1 POSSIBLE? AND HOW DO WE GET THERE FROM HERE? The Foundation for AIDS Research Placing the search for a cure for HIV/AIDS firmly • The search for a sterilizing cure that would at the center of its research efforts, amfAR has eliminate all HIV from the body; launched the Research Consortium for HIV • The search for a functional cure that would Eradication (ARCHE), a new grant program achieve permanent viral suppression without a cure for supporting collaborative teams of biomedical therapy; and aids is researchers exploring the barriers to and potential for eradicating HIV infection. • The characterization of viral reservoirs, impossible. With first-round funding of more than which would clarify how and where HIV remains dormant, beyond the reach of anti- without research. $1 million, ARCHE will support investigations in three broad research areas that are widely HIV drugs but poised to grow at any moment. considered central to HIV eradication: Achieving either a sterilizing or a functional cure requires understanding how HIV survives in dormancy and what can be done to www.amfAR.org/donate This amfAR public service ad first appeared in 2001, address this. evidence of the Foundation’s longstanding commitment to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 A Matter of Life and Death HOMOPHOBIA THREATENS HIV/AIDS WORK IN AFRICA In February, peer educators at an HIV clinic in Homophobia, of Kenya that serves men who have sex with men course, is present in every (MSM) were savagely beaten by an anti-gay mob country. But a wave of that doused some of the men with kerosene and homophobic rhetoric and tried to set them on fire. In Malawi, a leader of a violence in some African grassroots group working to stop HIV/AIDS among countries is undermining Peter Njane (right) and his colleague MSM went to his local police station to file a report efforts to combat high rates of HIV/AIDS among Solomon Wambua are among those after a break-in at his office—and was arrested MSM. Human rights activists, AIDS advocates, and working to raise awareness of for distributing HIV prevention materials the police grassroots MSM organizations—including a number HIV/AIDS among Kenya’s MSM. deemed “pornographic.” And in Uganda, the of groups funded by amfAR’s MSM Initiative—say (Photo: Kelli Anderson) country’s legislature is seriously considering anti-gay that the progress that had been made over the past laws that would make consensual sex among HIV- positive adults punishable by death. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 amfAR,www.amfar.org The Foundation amfAR, for The AIDS Foundation Research for AIDS www.amfAR.org Research INNOVATIONS, Spring 2010 FROM THE CEO INNOVATIONS The Newsletter of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research Charting a Path to a Cure Spring 2010 120 Wall Street, 13th Floor New York, NY 10005-3908 For years, many in possible, would be a game changer that tel: (212) 806-1600 the AIDS community would radically redefine our fight against fax: (212) 806-1601 have not dared to utter HIV/AIDS. 1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 406 the word “cure.” The Washington, DC 20036-4622 scientific obstacles tel: (202) 331-8600 fax: (202) 331-8606 to HIV eradication With the right investments now, consigned it to the we can bring this epidemic to TREAT Asia realm of fantasy. Exchange Tower 388 Sukhumvit Road, Suite 2104 At amfAR, an end in our lifetime. Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110 we understand that Thailand scientific risk-taking From the start, amfAR’s mission tel: (+66) 2 663-7561 fax: (+66) 2 663-7562 can yield extraordinary results, and we have has been to eradicate the global AIDS never given up our commitment to finding a cure. epidemic through innovative research. As www.amfar.org Recent scientific advances have only reinforced a leader in cure-focused research for many that commitment. Now, with the launch of the years, we strongly believe that with the right Newsletter Staff Andrew McInnes amfAR Research Consortium for HIV Eradication investments now, we can bring this epidemic Director, Public Information (ARCHE) (see page 1), we have established a to an end in our lifetime. It’s going to take Constance Herndon collaborative research initiative aimed directly resources and we’ll need to take some risks Senior Staff Writer Carolyn Hanson at the eradication of HIV. along the way. But we’ve been fighting Staff Writer Treatment alone cannot end this epidemic. skeptics and taking risks for almost 30 years. Raoul Norman-Tenazas For every person placed on treatment, two to We won’t stop now. ARCHE, we hope, will Creative Director Yolande Hunter three are newly infected with HIV. In 2008 alone, bring us one step closer to the end of AIDS. Creative Coordinator 2.7 million were newly infected, and only 42 percent of those who needed treatment in low- to middle-income countries received it. While anti-HIV drugs suppress the virus, they cannot eliminate it, which means that antiretroviral Kevin Robert Frost therapy is a lifelong commitment. A cure, if Chief Executive Officer amfAR meets the BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability Syringe Exchange and Immigration Ban Victories! amfAR recognizes American Airlines for its generous support of amfAR’s mission. amfAR FOUGHT RESTRICTIONS FOR TWO DECADES amfAR and its fellow AIDS advocates celebrated two major victories amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. Syringe exchange programs have this past winter with the successful passage in December of contributed to an 80 percent reduction in the number of new HIV legislation allowing local governments and agencies to use federal infections among injection drug users. funds for syringe exchange programs, followed by the official removal An immediate consequence of the immigration ban’s removal on January 4 of the longstanding U.S. ban on HIV-positive foreign was an announcement by the International AIDS Society that the 2012 visitors and immigrants. International AIDS Conference would be held in Washington, D.C.; the “For more than two decades, amfAR has been at the forefront global conference had not been held in the U.S. since the travel ban of advocacy efforts to expand funding for syringe exchange and to was instituted. n remove the U.S. government’s ban on HIV-positive visitors,” said 2 INNOVATIONS, Spring 2010 amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research www.amfar.org POLICY The Other Health Care Debate: Global AIDS and Global Health By Chris Collins Domestic health reform appears every day We should not be deciding in the headlines, but a parallel debate about which diseases to treat global health is just as heated and could lead to fundamental changes in America’s and which to shortchange. approach to international health and The real question is how With sufficient investment, we could virtually development. to advance global health eliminate mother-to-child transmission of Some prominent voices assert that HIV within five years. (Photo: Jenny King/ the global AIDS epidemic has received too most effectively. Dreamtime.com) large a share of attention. In an era of limited resources, the argument goes, it is time to “rebalance” funding toward other health But there are those who say we can’t isolation. One analysis of global health data priorities. AIDS advocates strenuously object, afford to sustain increased investments in finds that AIDS and other chronic diseases pointing to significant successes in AIDS fighting AIDS—no matter how successful are creating a “vicious cycle of illness and programming and the growing need to deliver they have been—and that funds should be poverty,” so addressing these diseases is lifesaving AIDS treatment and prevention shifted to cheaper interventions and overall crucial to making progress on other health services. health systems. What this argument misses is goals, including children’s health. What is that creating sustainable health systems that needed is increased investment in what serve whole communities requires a range works across multiple health areas. n Some assert that the of interventions, some at very low cost, like global AIDS epidemic has childhood vaccines, and others at higher cost, Chris Collins is amfAR’s vice president like AIDS treatment. and director of public policy. This piece is received too large a share Anyone at the front lines of the AIDS excerpted from a column published in the of attention. response knows that diseases do not exist in Huffington Post on March 15. amfAR meets the BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability We should not be deciding which diseases to treat and which to shortchange. The real question is how to advance global health most effectively. And part of Shining a Light on Rights the answer may lie in President Obama’s proposed Global Health Initiative, which is designed to broaden and better integrate America’s international health efforts. Unless Congress sees beyond the rhetoric that amfAR recognizes American Airlines for its generous support of pits disease against disease and commits amfAR’s mission. significantly increased resources to global health overall, the President’s broader vision will be undermined. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has averted 1.2 million deaths in Africa. Programs supported by PEPFAR have protected nearly 340,000 babies from being born with HIV. And a An international “Light for Rights” campaign launched on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2009, calls on recently released report suggests that, with the world to “keep the light on HIV and human rights.” To mark the occasion, UN Secretary-General Ban sufficient investment, we could virtually Ki-moon and amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole extinguished—and then reignited—the lights of New York’s eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV Washington Square Memorial Arch.