HIV / AIDS Conference -

HIV / AIDS Conference - Monday July 25, 2005

Welcome from the 3rd International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's professional society for scientists, health care and public health worker, and other engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention, control and care. Delegates arrived in Rio de Janeiro from across the globe to share information regarding a wide range of scientific areas. This meeting includes new information regarding novel therapeutic agents as well as prevention measures in both the developed and developing world. Recent International meetings have further focused on the roll out of antiretroviral therapy to some of the countries most devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Diversity of HIV Strains

The first full day of the meeting began with a presentation by Dr. Francine McCutchan who leads the Global Molecular Epidemiology Programme for the U.S. Military HIV Research Program. Dr. McCutchan presented data from work showing the diversity of HIV strains around the world. In addition to outlining how such extensive viral diversity may hinder the ability to develop a protective vaccine she also showed how these viruses can further mix within a given individual. This situation has been referred to as recombination and it rapidly results in new strains that are different from those previously recognized. Many of these new viruses have subsequently spread throughout different parts of the world. More recent work has used novel laboratory techniques to explore how often a given individual is infected by more than one strain of HIV, so called co-infection. This can occur as a result of an uninfected person being simultaneously infected by two different partners around the same time, or for a chronically infected person to be re-infected by a new partner, so called superinfection. This study showed that amongst those chronically infected who have many partners there is an increasing number with evidence of superinfection, in fact it may occur in up to 40% of select individuals. These types of studies have major implications for those infected by HIV. Firstly it illustrates how variable HIV can be, which will certainly make vaccine development very challenging. In addition it supports current recommendations that those infected with HIV do everything possible to prevent themselves from becoming superinfected. In fact, other studies have suggested that when superinfection occurs it is often associated with disease progression.