Dr. Fauci Addresses CROI about Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), addressed the 2019 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last night about Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America and the role HIV research will play in it. We spoke with Dr. Fauci ahead of his remarks at the opening plenary session of the conference, which has assembled more than 4,000 HIV researchers from around the globe.

Dr. Fauci provided a general overview of the plan to decrease the number of new HIV infections by 75% in 5 years and by 90% in 10 years. He discussed how he and the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Indian Health Service (IHS), and Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH) have collaborated on a strategy to make best use of the highly effective tools that are now available – specifically, HIV treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Dr. Fauci also discussed the roles that research and NIH, specifically, will play in the new initiative. The 19 NIH-supported Centers for HIV Research and six additional AIDS Research Centers supported by the National Institute of Mental Health will focus on implementation science and NIH also will continue to advance its HIV research agenda across a range of topics, including new and improved forms of HIV prevention and treatment, a vaccine, and research toward an HIV cure.

Dr. Fauci made clear that “we still have a significant problem with HIV in the United States,” with 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, 38,000 new HIV infections each year, and significant demographic and geographic disparities in new infections concentrated mostly among men who have sex with men and racial/ethnic minorities.

View Dr. Fauci’s plenary session address to the conferenceExit Disclaimer.

To find out more about the plan to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S., visit HIV.gov and sign up to receive email updates.

About the Conference

More than 4,000 HIV researchers are gathered in Seattle this week for the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). The conference brings together top basic, translational, and clinical researchers from around the world to share the latest studies, important developments, and best research methods in the ongoing battle against HIV and related infectious diseases. Visit the conference websiteExit Disclaimer for abstracts, session descriptions, webcastsExit Disclaimer, and other materials being released over the course of the coming week.