Research efforts are focused on better prevention, less toxic therapies, a vaccine and a cure. In this video, HealthMaker Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, explains why these are important.
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Our research efforts are focused on a few things, one of them is a vaccine, because classically a vaccine in infectious disease is the game changer for a durable control, if not eradication of a particular disease or at least getting it from an epidemic, pandemic form to a low level smoldering presence in society.
We also want better therapies, less toxic therapies, we also want a long acting therapy, because for example pre-exposure prophylaxis one of the real issues with pre-exposure prophylaxis is that people don't adhear to it. We know from good studies that if you take pre-exposure prophylaxis, if you're not infected and you take a pill everyday that you decrease by well over 90 plus percent the likelihood that you're going to get infected.
The reason why it doesn't work as well as it could is that people don't adhere, they don't take the pill. So something like a long acting therapy either an injection or pill that you can take once every few months, that would be a very important addition to the [xx] about prevention. So better prevention, less toxic therapy, a vaccine and hopefully a cure.
Anthony Fauci, MD has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. His focus is research to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases such as HIV/AIDS, influenza, tuberculosis and malaria.
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