T. T. Chao Symposium on Innovation: Can We Meet the Challenge of HIV/AIDS?

Once considered a death sentence, HIV infection has been transformed into a more manageable chronic disease for those with access to antiretroviral treatment. Since the condition was first described in 1981, the tireless efforts of a global community of scientific and medical researchers, HIV-infected patients and patient advocates have made—with unprecedented speed—remarkable progress in fighting the disease. This progress includes the identification of the virus, the development of an accurate test to show its presence in the blood, detailed knowledge of its structure and action, the discovery of dozens of effective drugs to treat it and hundreds of research studies that demonstrate how to halt its progress effectively.

How has this progress changed our approach to research and health policy? With panelists including some of the leading figures in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, “Can We Meet the Challenge of HIV/AIDS?” will provide an understanding of how, in the war against this disease currently affecting 36 million people, our victories have shaped the current scientific and policy-making landscape, and how they will guide the battles to come.

The day’s speakers include Robert C. Gallo (Institute on Human Virology), José Esparze (University of Maryland), Daria Hazuda (Merck Research Labs), Mark W. Kline (Texas Children’s Hospital), Andrew P. Rice (Baylor College of Medicine) and Mark Kaplan (University of Michigan Health System).