Health chief hopeful of finding Aids cure

Thirty years into the Aids epidemic, a cure remains elusive but a growing arsenal of drugs could someday help end new infections, the World Health Organisation’s HIV/Aids chief says.

The key is figuring out how to best manage the latest advances, Gottfried Hirnschall said in Washington last week ahead of the International Aids Conference that begins there on Jul 22.

Anti-retroviral drugs may reduce the risk of infected people passing on the virus, and may prevent healthy people from becoming infected through sex with HIV-positive partners, but the new possibilities have also stirred controversy.