While James Curran, dean at the Rollins School of Public Health, raves about the incredible breakthroughs that have changed HIV prevention and treatment, he cautions that these tools simply aren’t sufficient. Antiretroviral drugs can control existing infections and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) can drastically reduce cases of HIV, but the scale of the current epidemic requires something bigger. 

With 10s of millions of HIV-positive individuals around the world living with the disease, Curran thinks a vaccine that completely stops the spread of the disease should be the ultimate goal.

Advances in treatment are only as effective as their implementation strategies, and when researchers don’t take the extra step of building community trust and understanding, they won’t see the results the treatments promise. 

What does a community that’s mobilizing to combat HIV look like? What can other communities learn from those who were successful? Anthony Fauci says look to the gay community in the 1980s, when people came together to fight HIV:

The HIV epidemic globally is mostly impacting young people. Figuring out how to get young people tested and treated for HIV is a problem many communities can’t solve. But Mark Dybul, co-director of the Center for Global Health and Quality, sees opportunities to couple HIV intervention with other health prevention measures for young people.

Dybul stresses that young people don’t seek out health care overall, not just for HIV. But if care providers can combine health care for mental health with HIV care, for example, not only will it be easier to deal with complications in treating HIV, but the general health of youth communities would  drastically improve.