2023
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.
