Clues to a possible cure for AIDS

On July 22ndAIDS HIV UNAIDSHIVHIVAIDS the week-long 25th International Conference kicked off in Munich. Though are no longer the war councils they were in the epidemic’s early days—for the strategy to defeat is now pretty much settled—there remains much fighting to be done.In a report released as the conference started, , the United Nations agency that deals with the disease, said that almost 40m people are now infected. There were 1.3m new infections in 2023, and 630,000 -related deaths. But those numbers are down from 2.1m and 1.3m respectively in 2010. That year is the baseline for calculating the drop of 90% in annual new infections and -related deaths, which experts reckon would end as a public-health threat. The hope is to reach this target by 2030. On current trends that seems unlikely. But the numbers are, mostly, heading in the right direction.