Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. (Photo: NIAID via Wikimedia Commons CC BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Anne Goldfeld presented her work in Cambodia with AIDS patients who were co-infected with tuberculosis, the major cause of death due to AIDS. Starting ART early during anti-tuberculosis treatment restored their immune response and drastically reduced mortality.
Jo-Ann Passmore's studies in South Africa show that genital tract infection drastically increases the risk of HIV infection in young women. Bacterial infections not only attract HIV's target cells to the vaginal mucosa but also diminish the efficiency of vaginal microbicides used to protect against the virus during intercourse.
Given the lack of efficient vaccines or a cure, further research into HIV biology and epidemiology, and the immune response in monkeys and humans is sorely needed to improve existing therapies and inspire novel therapeutic and preventive approaches.
All academic titles have been omitted.
Author
Holger Breithaupt, embl, Science reporter
Speakers and Chairs
Marcus Altfeld (The Heinrich Pette Institute - Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology (HPI), Germany), Monsef Benkirane (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France), Eli Boritz (National Institutes of Health, USA), Persephone Borrow (University of Oxford, UK), Nicola Doria-Rose (NIH, USA), Mike Farzan (The Scripps Research Instiute (TSRI), USA), J. Victor Garcia-Martinez (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA), Teunis Geijtenbeek (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Anne Goldfeld (Harvard Medical School, USA), Bonnie Howell (Merck, USA), Frank Kirchhoff (Ulm University Hospital, Germany), Mathias Lichterfeld (Massachusetts General Hospital, USA), David Margolis (The University of North Carolina/The Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication (CARE), USA), Nelson Michael (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), USA), Penny Moore (National Institute for Communicable Diseases, USA), Jo-Ann Passmore (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Louis Picker (Oregon Health & Science University, USA), Christine Rouzioux (Université Paris Decartes, France), Bill Schief (The Scripps Research Institute and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), USA), Olivier Schwartz (Institute Pasteur, France), Hendrik Streeck (Universitätsklinikum Essen, Germany), Steven Wolinsky (Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, USA)