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World AIDS Day marked with new commitments to end HIV/AIDS epidemic


World AIDS Day was marked with new commitments
World AIDS Day was marked with new commitments
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This World AIDS Day marks 40 years since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially reported the first case of what became known as AIDS, and a Maryland lab is getting closer to finding a cure.

Since then, more than 36 million people have died, 700,000 of them in the U.S.

Rockville-based American Gene Technologies has data showing the infusion process of its cell therapy was not only safe but moving in the right direction.

RELATED: Maryland-based company hits 'huge milestone' in development of 'HIV functional cure'

That’s good news for the estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in America.

“The levels that we expected to see were in the range that we expected and that we think are sufficient for a functional cure,” said CEO and founder Jeff Galvin. “There's other things to check off, but the first one's checked off and everyone's necessary.”

Galvin says preliminary data on just how well those cells are able to battle HIV should be available by mid-December.

RELATED: 'I see amazing momentum.' Efforts to find HIV cure are speeding up in Maryland

If successful, it could have major impacts on so many other diseases and disorders.

“You could take a whole bunch of our components and you could reapply them to things like hepatitis B, HTLV, herpes, Epstein-Barr, human papillomavirus,” said Galvin.

He’s not the only one marking this World AIDS Day with celebration for how far science has come and acknowledgment of how much further it needs to go.

READ MORE: Biden HIV/AIDS strategy calls racism 'public health threat'

President Joe Biden set forth a new national 4-year strategy with the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

“It's because of the persistence and resilience of HIV community that were changed so much about the way we approach healthcare research and equitable access to services, even relationship between patients and healthcare providers,” the president said.

The plan includes reforming state HIV criminalization laws, expanding the focus on addressing social determinants of health that influence an individual’s HIV risk or outcomes and adding a focus on opportunities to engage the private sector.

“It's great to have the federal government doing what the government is supposed to do for something and everything that you just read me is exactly what the federal government should be doing about HIV,” said Galvin. “I really appreciate hearing that on World AIDS Day.”
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