Noting more than 20,000 international HIV researchers and activists will gather in Washington, D.C., for the AIDS 2012 conference later this month, the Associated Press writes that there is “a sense of optimism not seen in many years — hope that it finally may be possible to dramatically stem the spread of the AIDS virus.” “‘We want to make sure we don’t overpromise,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health’s infectious disease chief, told the Associated Press,” the news service notes, adding, “But, he said, ‘I think we are at a turning point.”

According to the AP, “studies over the past two years have shown what Fauci calls ‘striking, sometimes breathtaking results,’ in preventing people at high risk of HIV from getting it in some of the hardest-hit countries, using … treatment-as-prevention and some other protections.” The news service continues, “Now, as the International AIDS Conference returns to the U.S. for the first time in 22 years, the question is whether the world will come up with the money and the know-how to put the best combinations of protections into practice, for AIDS-ravaged poor countries and hot spots in developed nations as well.” The AP discusses HIV rates in the U.S. and highlights a number of potential strategies to curb the spread of the virus (Neergaard, 7/9).  

Webcasts and special coverage of AIDS 2012 will be available online from the Kaiser Family Foundation.