A Globe and Mail editorial discusses the importance of "the quest for an AIDS vaccine and the search for a cure," stating that "it is simply not possible to 'treat' our way out of this disease." The authors write that "for every person who receives treatment -- which must continue over their entire lifetime -- about three new people become infected."
The editorial cites two "exciting breakthroughs" and cautions that they "may take years to become therapeutic realities." First, research published in Science "identified two antibodies in an HIV-positive individual which, when put together, block 90 percent of the HIV strains." Additionally, "one researcher is focusing on the case of a leukemia patient in Berlin who appears to have been cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant. The donor had a genetic mutation that rendered him -- and his recipient -- resistant to HIV" (7/19).