Timeline Test
amfAR is proud to present the twelfth annual Gala Los Angeles, taking place once again at the Pacific Design Center. Last year’s event helped to raise over $1.7 million for amfAR’s HIV/AIDS research programs, and we hope you will join us as we return for a star-studded evening dedicated to our continued mission of finding a cure.
For more information, please contact amfarla@amfar.org.
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In a study named Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine, the drug lenacapavir is found to be 100% effective at preventing HIV acquisition when used as twice-yearly injectable PrEP. The more than 5,000 cisgender adolescent girls in the study, conducted by Gilead Sciences, registered zero HIV infections. A second study among different populations shows 99.9% efficacy, and two other trials are ongoing.
Researchers announce that a German man, the “second Berlin Patient,” likely joins the six others who have been cured of HIV by a stem cell transplant. The patient has been in sustained remission for five and a half years after a transplant of donor cells with only a single “heterozygous” gene mutation for CCR5, meaning the donor cells were fully susceptible to HIV infection. Researchers are investigating what healing mechanisms may be at work in this case.
The IMPAACT P1115 study shows that early treatment may reduce the HIV reservoir and lay the groundwork for a functional cure, particularly for children. Researchers monitored 54 infants who acquired HIV in the womb and initiated ART within 48 hours after birth. Among six children who underwent a treatment interruption, four have been able to sustain remission of HIV for at least a year..
A clinical trial of EBT-101, a CRISPR gene therapy developed by Excision BioTherapeutics, finds that it does not prevent HIV viral rebound. Researchers, who will continue trials with a higher dosing of EBT-101 and a different delivery method, do establish that a gene-editing intervention could be safe and well tolerated.
Respected health journalism and HIV/AIDS informational resource aidsmap/NAM Publications shutters after 37 years, and AIDS/LifeCycle, an annual 545-mile bicycle ride to raise funds for San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, announces that, after 30 years, 2025 will be its last.
Billionaire businessman Terry Ragon and wife Susan donate $400 million for HIV cure research at the eponymous Ragon Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Researchers, including past amfAR grantees, will focus on replicating the supercharged immune systems of “elite controllers,” people living with HIV who can control the virus without antiretroviral therapy.
A U.S. district judge rules that the U.S. military cannot bar people living with HIV with an undetectable viral load from serving in the armed forces.
AIDS epidemiologists since the early 1980s, South African husband and wife researchers Salim and Quarraisha Abdool-Karim win the Lasker Prize (“America’s Nobel”) “for illuminating key drivers of heterosexual HIV transmission; introducing life-saving approaches to prevent and treat HIV; and statesmanship in public health policy and advocacy.”
Dr. Ada Adimora, a groundbreaking epidemiologist, clinician, mentor, and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dies on New Year’s Day.
Hydeia Broadbent
AIDS activist and educator Hydeia Broadbent, who started her public advocacy at age six with a memorable appearance on Oprah, dies on February 20 at the age of 39. In 2017, Hydeia was profiled in amfAR’s Epic Voices interview series, with her video garnering 50,000 views.
David Mixner, longtime LGBTQ political strategist and AIDS activist, dies of long COVID at 77.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revises its policy on blood donation, recommending that a risk assessment be given to all potential donors, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. The previous guidelines allowed men who have sex with men (MSM) to donate blood only after waiting three months after their most recent sexual encounter.
The Tennessee Department of Health abruptly rejects the use of available federal funds for HIV prevention services. Among the programs affected are HIV prevention and surveillance activities, as well as the federal Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (EHE) initiative.
A study conducted at the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research at UCSF establishes proof of concept that combination immunotherapy may induce post-treatment control by altering facets of the virus or the immune response to it, and it provides a wealth of clues for scientists to build on for a scalable HIV cure.
In January, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson and partners discontinue the Phase 3 Mosaico HIV vaccine clinical trial after an independent review found that the vaccine regimen was not effective in preventing HIV. In December, PrEPVacc—an African-led study of a combination of experimental HIV vaccines and PrEP—was also discontinued after disappointing efficacy results.
An individual known as the Geneva patient may have been cured of HIV via a stem cell transplant. Unlike the previous five people cured with donor stem cells from individuals with the CCR5-delta32 genetic mutation, which renders cells almost impervious to HIV infection, this transplant involved “wild-type” donor cells without the mutation.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, represents one of the strictest and most discriminatory pieces of legislation against LGBTQ+ people and people living with or at risk for HIV ever enacted. Local activists and other countries criticized the law, fearing it will negatively impact HIV prevention and treatment.
Succeeding Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, a respected expert in HIV prevention, is appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Researchers in the Netherlands share study results detailing a new case of post-treatment control of HIV. Diagnosed in 1998, the man has remained undetectable for close to two decades post-treatment. Comprehensive genetic and immunologic analyses by researchers, including past amfAR grantee Dr. Jori Symons of University Medical Center Utrecht, suggest that the case may be the result of strong CD8 immune cell responses and a virus that seemed slow to replicate, possibly due to a mutation.
Along with collaborator Dr. Katalin Karikó, veteran HIV vaccine researcher and amfAR grantee Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania is awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on mRNA, which proved instrumental in the development of effective vaccines for Covid-19.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which according to the WHO included hundreds of attacks on medical facilities and health workers, has interrupted access to lifesaving medications for people living with HIV, especially in the Donetsk region.
In April, a new variant of monkeypox (mpox) virus infection is identified in the UK and explodes into a global outbreak. amfAR helps guide the U.S. response to mpox and sound the alarm about the risk of acquiring the virus among those who comprise the majority of cases so far: men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly Black and Latino MSM as well as individuals living with HIV.
Two more individuals—the New York patient and the City of Hope patient—appear to have been cured of HIV after transplants using stem cells with the CCR5 mutation, an approach that has been a recurrent theme in amfAR’s cure research for the past 10 years.
The phenomenon of exceptional elite control—people who, without the use of ART, control HIV viral replication and do not experience immune dysfunction—has been noted in six individuals who have been followed for 30 years by researchers. Along with the Esperanza patient, reported in 2021, researchers propose they may be considered a good model for an HIV cure.
An instance of post-treatment control—another possible cure strategy—is reported by a research team in Spain. The Barcelona patient is a woman who had participated in a clinical trial of several immune-modifying interventions that variously suppress and stimulate immune function and stopped taking ART with no rebound of HIV for 15 years.
The WHO recommends use of long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) as PrEP for people at substantial risk for HIV.
Dr. Anthony Fauci—one of the most cited scientists of all time, particularly in the field of HIV/AIDS—retires in December as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. The nation’s top infectious disease expert since 1984, Fauci has been medical advisor to seven U.S. Presidents.
According to new UNAIDS data, progress in prevention and treatment has diminished to the point where urgent action is needed to address the inequalities driving AIDS and prevent millions of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. 1.5 million new infections occurred in 2021—more than 1 million higher than UNAIDS targets—and adolescent women and girls, as well as members of key populations, made up the majority.
The Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030 (UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, and other partners) is launched to close the treatment gap between children and adults living with HIV (only 52% of children vs. 76% of adults are accessing lifesaving medications) and prevent new infant HIV infections.
2022 saw the passing of AIDS pioneers Dr. Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV and Nobel Prize winner, and Dr. Paul Farmer, health equity advocate and co-founder of Partners in Health.
Dr. Joseph Sonnabend passes away on January 24, 2021. In 1983, Dr. Sonnabend, along with Dr. Mathilde Krim and Michael Callen, founded the AIDS Medical Foundation, which would join forces with Elizabeth Taylor’s National AIDS Research Foundation to form amfAR in 1985.
Even though AIDS has been around for longer than 40 years, June 5 marks the 40th anniversary of the first scientific reporting of identified AIDS cases in the U.S.
A 30-year-old Argentinian woman, diagnosed positive in 2013, appears to be spontaneously cured of HIV, according to a study whose authors include amfAR grantees. After an exhaustive search of 1.5 billion of the woman’s cells, researchers were unable to find any virus that could competently replicate. The woman, named the “Esperanza patient” after her birthplace, is the second person, after Loreen Willenberg, believed to have naturally cleared her infection.
Botswana becomes the first high-burden country to significantly reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission, an important step toward an AIDS-free generation.
amfAR’s TREAT Asia program receives a five-year $14.5 million grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, representing the fourth successive round of funding for a partnership between TREAT Asia and the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. TREAT Asia’s network includes more than 50 research institutions and community organizations in 13 countries across the Asia-Pacific.
At a World AIDS Day event at the White House, President Biden announced the release of an updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy and recommitted the United States to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The Strategy focuses on four goals: prevent new HIV infections; improve HIV-related health outcomes of people with HIV; reduce HIV-related disparities and health inequities; and achieve integrated, coordinated efforts that address the HIV epidemic among all partners and stakeholders.
Two long-acting injectables are approved by the FDA—Apretude, the first long-acting injectable for PrEP, and Cabenuva, a long-acting HIV treatment.
In January, Chinese researchers determine a novel coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2—is the cause of a cluster of transmissions in Wuhan. On March 11, the World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.
(Photo by Ryan Emberley)
An amfAR study responds to a crucial data gap by examining the impact of COVID-19 on Black communities. Countering the narrative that underlying health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cerebrovascular disease) were responsible for disparate rates of SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses among Black Americans, the study shows that social factors such as high rates of uninsured and crowded households in Black counties were responsible for greater rates of COVID-1. The study is later honored with the Elsevier Atlas Award.
Scheduled to convene in San Francisco and Oakland, AIDS 2020, the 23rd International AIDS Conference, follows COVID-19 safety protocols and goes completely virtual. It draws 13,453 participants from 176 countries.
Seeking to induce post-treatment control in people living with HIV using a combination of agents, a unique and potentially groundbreaking clinical trial led by Dr. Steven Deeks and other researchers at the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research gets underway. The complex, multi-stage trial is the culmination of four years of work by teams of researchers at the Institute, which amfAR launched in 2016 with a five-year $20 million grant to the University of California, San Francisco.
The age-adjusted rate of HIV-related deaths among people living with HIV in the U.S. decreased by almost half from 2010 to 2017, according to a CDC report.
President Trump announces his administration’s goal to end the HIV epidemic in the United States in 10 years. The proposed Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America aims to reduce the number of new HIV infections domestically by 75% in five years and by 90% by 2030.
amfAR-funded researchers report on the case of the “London Patient,” who may be only the second person to have been cured of HIV. Like the “Berlin patient,” the man has no detectable HIV infection after receiving a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a genetic mutation conferring immunity to HIV.
Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, perform the first transplant of a kidney from an HIV-positive living donor into an HIV-positive recipient.
The NIH announces the launch of the LATITUDE clinical trial to evaluate long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy for maintaining HIV suppression in people who find it challenging to take daily antiretroviral drugs.
amfAR launches its Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Database website to help policymakers, public health officials, advocates, and other stakeholders to understand the opportunities and challenges across EHE jurisdictions.
Dr. Mathilde Krim, amfAR’s Founding Chairman, dies at 91. In remembrance, The New York Times calls her “America’s foremost warrior in the battle against superstitions, fears and prejudices that have stigmatized many people with AIDS.”
The NIH launches a large international study to compare the safety and efficacy of antiretroviral treatment regimens for pregnant women living with HIV and their infants.
A global analysis, reviewing studies involving nearly 800,000 people from 153 countries, finds that people living with HIV are twice as likely as their HIV-negative counterparts to suffer from heart disease.
The WHO certifies that Malaysia has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
A study reports that targeted, high-coverage roll-out of PrEP is associated with a 25% reduction in new HIV diagnoses in one year. It is the first study to test PrEP’s population-level effectiveness.
amfAR-funded researchers at the European IciStem consortium report a “profound” reduction in the HIV reservoirs of five patients who have received stem cell transplants.
The amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research is established with a $20 million grant over five years to the University of California, San Francisco. The Institute will serve as the cornerstone of amfAR’s Countdown to a Cure for AIDS initiative.
The “Undetectable=Untransmittable (U=U)” slogan is launched by the Prevention Access Campaign to promote the finding that HIV-positive people who are virally suppressed cannot sexually transmit the virus to others.
A large international study reports that HIV resistance to the widely prescribed antiretroviral drug tenofovir is becoming increasingly common.
At CROI, researchers announce that a man taking the HIV prevention pill Truvada has contracted HIV—the first reported infection of someone regularly taking the drug.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services releases new guidance for state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments that will allow them to request permission to use federal funds to support syringe services programs.
The United Nations holds its 2016 High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS. UN member states pledge to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, but the meeting is marked by controversy after more than 50 nations block the participation of groups representing LGBT people from attending the meeting.