Search for a Cure- Editorials & Opinions

Reasons For Hope (RFH)

is Search For A Cure's national HIV treatment news series.

RFH covers the latest in developing therapies for treating HIV/AIDS.

RFH is published in over 90 community newspapers and found on many websites for people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. We encourage your comments and critiques. Email hope@sfac.org Feel free to copy and distribute any and all RFH articles.

Helpful Links

search our site

Why We Should All be in a Clinical Trial

The medicines we have are not a cure, are a lifelong financial burden and have lots of side effects. The only way to see if new therapies work is to test them on people with HIV. The only way to see if a vaccine will work is to test it on people without HIV. If we want the day to come that HIV is a thing of the past the most important thing we can all do is find a study that needs us and join it.

editorials

June 2007:

Cure for HIV?

Once again we are hearing about efforts to eradicate HIV, at least in some people. These efforts are being made, not by marginal actors, but by the country's top doctors. On May 24th the Bloomberg report (Bloomberg.com) headlined the issue this way:

'Top U.S. Scientist to Use New AIDS Drugs Seeking Cure'
(the scientist referred to is Anthony Fauci, longtime director of many HIV research efforts at the National Institutes of Health).

A summary of scientists' efforts exploring the possibility of eradication can be found here:

December 2003:

Clinical Trials

It is hard to get people to join a study of new medicines nowadays. This is mostly because people think the therapies we have are good enough. It's not true. HIV medicines fail some people. And they are too expensive for most of the world to use. The medicines we have are not a cure, are a lifelong financial burden and have lots of side effects. The only way to see if new therapies work is to test them on people with HIV. The only way to see if a vaccine will work is to test it on people without HIV.

May 2003:

Bush WHACKED

With great fanfare Bush announced a $15 billion effort passed by the Congress at his request, to fight AIDS around the world - big talk, small steps. Not a penny of that money has been authorized. And every step of the way right-wingers slow the money down, wanting to put their religion based conditions on every penny.

November 2002:

AIDS forever

It is time to talk about ending the disease instead of managing it. Management of HIV means spending the least amount you can get away with. In poor countries this means treating mothers during birth for a few days so they can't pass on their HIV. These programs don't stop HIV because the two groups that are least likely to give HIV to anyone else are babies and the sick.

These programs are the cheapest way to feel less guilty about doing the bare minimum while over 20 million people are already dead and 36 million more are infected.

August 2002:

Barcelona

At the huge conference center in downtown Barcelona, scientists, activists, politicians, reporters and doctors from all over the world came together the second week of July, 2002 for the 14th International Conference on AIDS.

It had a simple message: there are more and better medicines for rich countries and death for the millions with HIV in poor countries. In the poor nations of the world, where 5 out of every 6 people live, the epidemic is getting worse.

April 2002:

Our Best Shot

Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Cruz is a scientist from Madrid with a passion. He wants to see an end to the AIDS epidemic. Unfortunately, the vaccine he has been testing for the past four years will probably not be developed further, because the small company that makes it needs a lot of money to continue the testing.