For the latest episode of the Beyond Journal Club Podcast, we looked at a couple of trials on medications to prevent HIV infection, the PURPOSE 1 and PURPOSE 2 trials.
At first glance, the topic might seem almost...boring. HIV has been around for decades. It's still a chronic disease. There’s still no cure, no vaccine — same old story, right?
But as I dug into these trials, I was floored by the bigger picture: the science here is nothing short of revolutionary.1
In the span of a generation, we’ve gone from discovering HIV to having the tools to end the HIV epidemic today.
A diagnosis of HIV used to be a death sentence. Now it’s a chronic, manageable condition.
And for people at risk, prevention2 is easier than ever: a daily pill, a monthly injection, or an injection every six months — all incredibly effective, well tolerated, and (hopefully) widely available.
The hard truth? The obstacles to ending HIV are no longer scientific. We don’t need new drugs or vaccines. We need policy, access, and implementation.
There are 30,000 new HIV infections every year in the United States. That number should be zero.
We made this episode because everyone — policymakers, doctors, and the public — needs to understand what’s possible when we match scientific breakthroughs with real-world action.
The obstacles to ending HIV are no longer scientific. We don’t need an HIV vaccine, we don’t need new medications, we just need to help people at risk get access to the type of preventive medications that work for them.
If you aren’t familiar with this story, I think you’ll find this episode not just illuminating — but inspiring.
It is not an exaggeration to say that researchers have essentially solved the puzzle of HIV.
The term for this type of prevention is pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP
