Christian Gaebler

On the final day of AIDS 2024, the session titled “Preparing for the Future” provided an exciting outlook into the coming years. The session covered new strategies for achieving HIV remission, an overview of emerging AI-technologies, and an analysis of the economic aspects of the global HIV response.

Melanie Ott (UCSF) provided new insights into strategies for silencing the HIV reservoir to achieve long-term remission. She explained that the transcriptionally active reservoir is larger than previously thought, as ART doesn’t block viral transcription. Ott described next-generation approaches to address this ART blind-spot, particularly focusing on inhibiting the tat protein, which is known to “turbo-start HIV transcription,” using small molecules or gene-editing techniques. Ricardo Baptista Leite (Health AI) highlighted how artificial intelligence tools could improve healthcare systems by aligning spending with beneficial outcomes. He stated that he “truly believes that AI can transform health systems forever.” Regarding the HIV response, he noted that AI could help identify individuals at high risk of HIV acquisition, accelerate access to timely diagnosis, improve equitable access to HIV education, and accelerate scientific advances, e.g. HIV drug discovery. He ended with highlighting implementation challenges like regulatory compliance, data governance, access and sharing. Finally, Gesine Meyer-Rath provided important insights into the global HIV response from an economic perspective. She concluded that the collective efforts of the global HIV response have spared us from experiencing the full economic and social repercussions of untreated HIV. Meyer-Rath emphasized, "Let's work to ensure we never have to find out."

This session explored a wide range of topics, from foundational scientific strategies aimed at "blocking and locking" the HIV reservoir to achieve treatment-free HIV remission, to an optimistic outlook on how artificial intelligence can address numerous challenges within our complex healthcare systems and significantly enhance the global HIV response. Additionally, it emphasized the critical role of economic considerations in shaping political decisions. Understanding the HIV response through an economic lens is essential for developing improved strategies to ultimately end the HIV epidemic.