Aids research needed ‘more than ever’

The US scientist who jointly discovered that HIV is the infectious agent responsible for Aids has today insisted that medical research into the disease is needed more than ever.

Robert Gallo says that almost a quarter of a century after the discovery of the virus, more than 250,000 people die every month across the world as a result of Aids.

He writes in the Student British Medical Journal (BMJ) that research must be continued into developing preventative treatments and eventually creating a cure.

“Those early years of 1982-85 may be regarded as representing the fastest pace ever achieved in medical science from the time of the birth of a new disease to advances in its understanding, diagnosis, prevention, and therapy,” he explains.

But Professor Gallo, who works at the University of Maryland’s institute of human virology, emphasises that effective therapies can only be reached through medical science, adding that he hopes this will be the “last time that 25-year reflection is needed”.

Commenting on the professor’s article, Balaji Ravichandran, editor of the Student BMJ, said: “If we are to achieve the dream of not ‘celebrating’ the 50th anniversary, we need to act fast.

“For it is science that discovered the virus behind the pandemic, science that attempts to prevent and treat it, and only science that will, one day, put a complete end to it.”