The Conversation: A cure for HIV: what science knows, and what it doesn’t
Sharon Lewin, consultant physician at Alfred Hospital’s Department of Infectious Diseases and director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; and Thomas Aagaard Rasmussen, clinical research fellow at the Peter Doherty Institute

“…A successful strategy [for curing or controlling HIV infection] is likely to need two components: reducing the amount of virus that persists on antiretroviral treatment and improving long-term immune surveillance to target any residual virus. Far more work must be done on an HIV cure in low-income settings to better understand the effects of different HIV strains, the effects of co-infection, and the impact of host genetics. Lessons from other fields, particularly oncology, transplantation, and fundamental immunology are all relevant to inform the next advances needed in cure research. Finally, we have to ensure that any intervention leading to a cure is cost effective and widely available. … Finding a cure for HIV remains a major scientific challenge, but many believe it to be within the realm of possibility and it will hopefully play an important role in seeing an end to HIV” (7/20).