Time For A Cure?

More Musings From Paul Kawata
Please fill out the following survey monkey by October 8th http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HIVpriorities

At this year’s International AIDS Conference, a doctor from Australia gave a presentation on Finding A Cure. The C word that we dare not speak about. In many ways, a cure is the holy grail for our epidemic. We don’t talk about it, but we all hope one is possible.

The AIDS Policy Project (http://www.aidspolicyproject.org) is leading the charge to find a cure. Please read their simple fact sheet on AIDS cure research at http://www.aidspolicyproject.org/documents/Factsheet.pdf

When we discuss finding a cure, there are several issues to understand:

• We don’t a viable cure right now; however, we have cured one person living with AIDS
• Its going to take science that is currently not discovered to figure out the solution
• Its going to take a substantial financial investment
• Preventive vaccines will do nothing for people already living with the virus
• We cannot treat our way out of this epidemic
  

According to the AIDS Policy Project, we spend around 3% of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIDS research budget looking for a cure. In 2009, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) spend around $40 million on AIDS cure research. The 2009 NIAID AIDS budget was around $1.5 billion. Thus, NIAID spent around 3% of its annual budget to find a cure for AIDS.

What is the right amount of money to spend? How do we balance that expense against funding for other HIV/AIDS challenges? One solution is to have more money appropriated for HIV/AIDS. The real option is more difficult. Finding new money in this economy feels almost impossible. Even if we were to get more Congressional funds for HIV/AIDS, would or should we spend it finding a cure?

In a world with limited resources, what are the priorities?

Tough conversations about money follows tough conversations about priorities. Although we don’t determine the priorities, we do have input. How would you prioritize the following issues? We need more money for...

• AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)
• Biomedical research
• Finding a cure
• Global Fund
• Global prevention initiatives
• Global treatment initiatives
• Housing/HOPWA
• National HIV/AIDS Strategy
• National HIV/AIDS media campaign
• Microbicides
• Medical infrastructure in underserved communities
• PrEP
• Targeted HIV prevention programs focused on drug users
• Targeted HIV prevention programs focused on gay men
• Targeted HIV prevention programs focused on trans community
• Targeted HIV prevention programs focused on women, especially Black Women and Latinas
• Test and Treat
• Vaccines
  

Help NMAC understand “community priorities”, please fill out the following survey monkey by October 8th http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HIVpriorities Let us know your priorities, we will publish the results.

Having tough conversations as a movement is important. If we are going to build a political infrastructure strong enough to move Congress, we have to learn how to have the tough conversations or we will never be able to talk to elected officials.