Health
Q&A with Dr. Anthony Fauci
Researcher talks about state of AIDS on eve of conference
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH has been involved in the fight against AIDS since the onset of the epidemic. (Photo courtesy NIH)
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been one of the key leaders of the U.S. government’s fight against AIDS for nearly 30 years. Since 1984, Fauci has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is an arm of the National Institutes of Health.
Although his work covers research into other infectious diseases, Fauci serves as one of the lead advisers to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services on domestic and global AIDS issues, according to biographical information released by the NIH.
He has been credited with developing effective strategies for the treatment of people with HIV/AIDS as well as for the continuing effort to develop an AIDS vaccine.
Fauci spoke to the Blade this week about his hopes and expectations for the 19th International AIDS Conference scheduled for July 22-27 in Washington. About 30,000 people, including scientists, AIDS researchers, government officials, and AIDS activists from the U.S. and abroad are expected to attend the conference.
Washington Blade: Can you say something about what important scientific advances and research findings will emerge from International AIDS Conference in Washington next week?
Dr. Fauci: As in most international meetings of this size it is unusual for there to be a scientific breakthrough of pure scientific nature that hasn’t already been seen, discussed, and vetted out in the press. It is very unusual that a major league breakthrough would all of a sudden be totally timed for discussion at the meeting. So that’s not a negative comment or a positive comment. It just is what it is. Meetings like this have themes and they kind of crystallize and galvanize people around a particular theme.
The Vancouver [International AIDS Conference] in 1996 – the theme of that was the first time that we began discussing in earnest the issue of having a combination of drugs that would get the virus below a detectable level and what impact would that have on the longevity and the lifestyle and functionality of people. That was the big theme of that meeting.
The 2000 [International AIDS Conference] in Durban was can we start getting drugs that we know work in the developed world to the developing world when there were demonstrations in Durban, South Africa.
So rather than there being meetings where there are three or four scientific breakthroughs there really is a sort of consolidation or galvanization around a theme. So the theme of this meeting, as you know, is Turning the Tide Together. They’ve asked me to lead off the opening plenary session on Monday, July 23, with a particular approach to the meeting. In other words, to kind of set the scientific tone of the meeting. And that’s exactly what it is because the title of my talk is “Ending the AIDS Epidemic From Scientific Advances to Public Health Implementation.”
And what you’re going to hear throughout the meeting is various iterations in different regions, in different populations, different demographic groups about the challenges – the biological, behavioral and other challenges – of getting that done. So I’m going to talk about how we went from fundamental scientific discoveries to interventions that you could actually use to help people – mostly treatments and prevention – to how we began to implement them, first in the developed world and then in the developing world.
And now what the science-based possibilities are for actually ultimately ending the AIDS pandemic. Then you are going to hear in rapid succession after that either major talks or just minor presentations of details of that. Like Phill Wilson is going to talk about the perspective from the African-American community. Others will talk about it from different countries – Southern African countries, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, etc. So that’s going to be the prevailing theme. And then obviously there are going to be other approaches about individual specific, more granular scientific issues like the challenges of an HIV vaccine. We don’t have a vaccine. Where have we come from? Where are we now and where do we hope to go? There are going to be a lot of discussions and panels on that.
There’s a satellite session before the meeting starts on toward an HIV cure. You know, what do we mean by a cure? How does a cure relate to the rest of the things that are going on? What are the scientific challenges of a cure?
So we have a bunch of things that are at the stage of having been developed and they just need to be implemented. So you’re going to hear a lot about implementing programs. And then there are a couple of still existing major scientific challenges, one of which is a vaccine and the other of which is a cure.
Blade: Can you say where we stand on both of those things?
Fauci: Well, with a vaccine we are probably closer than we are to a cure. A cure is still in the very, very formative stages of discovery because we’re not even sure if it’s possible and, if so, how we might go about doing that because of the very special characteristics of this virus. With regard to a vaccine, I still can’t predict when we’ll have one so it’s futile to even put a number on it. But we’ve already had one modestly successful vaccine trial a few years ago in Thailand in what was called RV 144. It’s a trial that showed there was about a 31 percent efficacy in the vaccinated people protecting them. Now that’s not good enough for prime time but since that time — and you’ll be hearing a lot about it at the meeting — there have been a number of projects that have tried to probe into what are the potential correlates of immunity. In other words, what did that vaccine induce in the people who were protected that you might build upon for the next generation of vaccines?
And there will be discussion about identification of certain types of anti-bodies in infected individuals which are called broadly neutralizing anti-bodies that might point us in the right direction of what we would be asking a vaccine to do. So those are some of the things that are going to be discussed vis-a-vis a vaccine.
The cure thing is going to be very basic, like understanding the nature of the HIV reservoir. Are there ways that we can eradicate that reservoir? If we can’t eradicate it are there ways we can either boost up the immune system or modify the host so that their cells are not susceptible to being infected?
Blade: Isn’t that what some of the current treatments do but not to a complete extent?
Fauci: Well they don’t cure it. The current treatments are absolutely sensational in their ability to essentially block the virus’s ability to replicate without eradicating it, but to the point where when people are staying on their medications there’s virtually an undetectable level of virus in the blood of those people.
Blade: Has that been progressing in the last several years?
Fauci: Oh yes, absolutely. The results of treatment and its effect – right now you can essentially mathematically predict a normal life span in individuals who get treated early enough in their infections so that their immune system isn’t completely damaged and they stay on therapy and continue to decrease the viral load. When I was seeing patients every day in the very early 80s — 1981, ’82, ’83 — the median survival of the patients was about six to eight months. Now if someone who’s 25 years old comes into the clinic with relatively recently acquired HIV infection, within the last six months or so, and you put them on appropriate therapy you can predict to that individual that they would likely live an additional 50 plus years.
That’s a spectacular advance in the translation of basic research into a scientific and clinical result.
Blade: Could you say a little about the announcement yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the AIDS drug Truvada as a prevention drug for people who are HIV negative?
Fauci: I think you need to put the Truvada thing into the proper context. And the proper context is that Truvada has been proven by scientifically based evidence that it works in preventing infection in uninfected individuals if properly used. The one thing you need to make sure you emphasize — it is part now, since it’s been approved by the FDA, of a comprehensive combination package of prevention modalities. It is not to be used as a substitute for standard prevention like avoiding multiple sexual partners, avoiding risky behavior, the proper and consistent use of condoms. This is an additive approach. It’s a very important one because it’s the first time that the FDA has actually approved an anti-HIV drug for prevention rather than just for treatment.
Blade: Has the NIH looked into the use of Truvada as a treatment and how well it works?
Fauci: Oh, it’s been used as one of the best parts – you see, it isn’t the full combination but Truvada is probably the most frequently used component as part of a combination with another drug for the treatment of people who are already infected. So there is a wealth of experience with Truvada.
Blade: Are the side effects generally acceptable?
Fauci: They are generally mild, quite mild. If you look at the spectrum of approximately 30 drugs that are used for the treatment of infected individuals Truvada is way down on the list of minimal side effects. They’re not absent. No drug in the world has no side effects. But they’re generally rather mild – nausea, some abdominal discomfort, some diarrhea, perhaps some weight loss, an occasional headache. And only very rarely do you get toxicity like kidney toxicity. But in general if you rank it they’re relatively non-toxic drugs.
Blade: While most AIDS advocacy organizations appear to support the FDA decision on Truvada, some have raised strong objections. They say it could give the wrong impression that —
Fauci: Well that’s the reason why they say it’s not for everyone. It’s for people in high-risk categories who don’t seem to be responding to the other available prevention modalities. It’s not saying, OK, everybody out there that’s been trying to avoid infection — no sweat, go onto this drug and you can do whatever you want. That’s absolutely not what this means.
Blade: You’ve been involved in the fight against AIDS from the beginning. What is your sense of how our country has adjusted to AIDS over the past 30 years?
Fauci: I think that certainly the stigma that has been associated with this is much, much less than it was back in the early years. There’s no doubt about that. But in certain demographic groups it still lingers, particularly and unfortunately in the African-American population, where being gay and certainly being gay and infected carries much more stigma than you see in the white population. There’s no doubt about that and that’s probably one of the reasons why it’s difficult to get African-American people, men and women, into testing and counseling programs because of the fear of stigma or a variety of other societal factors – socio-economic conditions, etc.
So on the whole we’re doing much, much better but there are still certain subgroups of people that suffer disproportionately. Twelve to 13 percent of the population is African American. More than 50 percent of the new infections occur among African-American men and women, mostly of men who have sex with men.
Blade: What is your sense, then, in comparing all the risk groups that we know now, where does the category of men who have sex with men fit in today?
Fauci: That’s still the major demographic group in this country. Internationally it’s very heavily weighted toward heterosexual. In the United States, men who have sex with men is still the largest category of people who get infected.
Health
United States Conference on HIV/AIDS grapples with federal budget cuts
Annual gathering is largest of its kind in the country
Advocates, public health experts, and healthcare providers gathered for the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS on Sept. 17 in Anaheim, Calif.
The conference is the largest of its kind in the nation and came amid a wave of new challenges for HIV research and treatment. Since the beginning of the second Trump-Vance administration, federal spending cuts have targeted HIV/AIDS programs, including the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development and proposed cuts to PEPFAR, which supports HIV testing and treatment globally, in 2025.
Last year, Congress maintained funding for HIV programs after proposed cuts faced opposition from advocacy groups and bipartisan criticism. Yet, this year Congress has proposed similar cuts to many of the same programs, which would cut nearly one billion dollars in HIV funding. The majority of the cuts would impact HIV prevention and outreach, which includes ending nearly all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HIV prevention activities.
“If we continue down this path,” said Jeremiah Johnson, the executive director of PrEP4ALL, an advocacy group that supports expanding access to HIV prevention. “We’re going to see more people falling off treatment. We’re going to see more wait lists. That’s going to lead to more people dying from AIDS-related complications.”
Cuts and challenges
The funding cuts loomed over the conference and inspired protest from activists.
On the first day of USCHA, activists with Save HIV Funding organized a mock funeral outside the convention center. Advocates living with HIV wrote eulogies for themselves, meant to show the consequences of diminished access to treatment. Then activists marched through the conference carrying fake coffins.
Johnson, who helped organize the protest, said that “the Trump administration has eviscerated global aid … and the fears that many of us are just talking about hypothetically for ourselves at the moment are already happening [internationally]. And so we wanted to place that front and center at this conference.”
The attacks on funding for HIV research and outreach come at a complicated time for the movement to end the AIDS epidemic. While options for prevention and treatment have never been more accessible, such as PrEP and antiretroviral therapy, there have been some concerning upticks in infections, particularly among communities of color.
Southern states account for the majority of new HIV infections in the country, despite making up only 38 percent of the population. And these infections impact disproportionately Black and Latino communities. According to the CDC, even as overall HIV infections decreased from 2018 to 2022, diagnoses of HIV among Latinos grew by 17 percent, with a majority of this increase happening in the South.
Stigma is still the biggest barrier for people seeking out HIV treatment, said Guillermo Chacón, president of the Latino Commission on AIDS.
“The progress that we [made] in the past two years has been demolished,” he said.
Chacón blames the federal government for stigmatizing HIV treatment by using harmful rhetoric about queer people.
“The level of homophobia and transphobia right now is even higher because it has been used as a political message to create fear and division in our country,” he said.
Chacón believes that research and outreach must be done to reverse the rising HIV infections among Latinos. However, this is exactly the type of research that the Trump-Vance administration is targeting most intensely. Research into “health disparities” — why some health problems impact certain communities more than others — has been heavily criticized by the White House, along with other research that it considers “woke” and claims is not supported by science.
Impact felt at conference
The opening plenary for the conference addressed some of the funding challenges the movement was facing but tried to shift the focus to the victories the movement has seen over the years. Speakers highlighted historic successful activist campaigns like ACT UP, and recent improvements in medical care and access to treatment.
Randevyn Pierre, head of U.S. external affairs at ViiV Healthcare, the sponsor of the plenary, took the stage to celebrate the success of the U = U campaign (undetectable viral load =
untransmittable HIV virus), and ViiV’s investment of $33 million in HIV community organizations across the U.S. This comes as the Trump-Vance administration has made moves to end direct funding of community-based organizations, opting to give the funding to state healthcare agencies.
The speakers at the conference discussed reducing stigma for those living with HIV and the joy of living authentically. They also emphasized the diverse groups of people that are impacted by HIV and how they can come together to fight for a cure. Longtime AIDS activist Rae Lewis Thorton exclaimed, “When they tell me there’s a cure to HIV, I’m gonna take off my 4-inch heels and put on gold slippers,” to applause from the audience.
The opening plenary also featured song and dance from a variety of artists, many of whom spoke about how HIV has impacted their own lives and how advocacy has uplifted their spirits. However, the joyous atmosphere at the conference would not last.
On the final day of USCHA, Geri Donenberg, the associate director of AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health, took the stage to address the conference.
As she spoke, phones began to buzz around the room with breaking news: the Trump-Vance administration was drafting an executive order to create an external board to oversee NIH grants and screen them for political content. NMAC CEO Harold Philips took the stage after Donenberg to address the crowd. “It’s up to us,” Philips said, “to hold NIH accountable.” He added that HIV advocates “have supporters inside NIH who are struggling and working to do the right thing. We have to have their back.”
Chants of “stand up, fight back, fight AIDS” erupted from the crowd as Philips spoke. “We do have to fight back. We do have to continue to fight,” Philips replied.
Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Health
AIDS Healthcare Foundation announces 3 million people globally in its care
Los Angeles-based group lauded ‘historic milestone’
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group founded in 1987 that has become the world’s largest HIV/AIDS organization, has announced it has three million people in care around the world.
In a statement released on May 26, the organization, known worldwide as AHF, said the latest accomplishment reflects its global commitment to HIV prevention, care, and treatment. It says the accomplishment comes at a time when AHF marks the 25th anniversary of its first global programs launched in South Africa and Uganda in early 2001.
The statement says the three million people in care milestone also comes while the group approaches the 40th anniversary of its founding in 1987.
“Today, AHF provides lifesaving services in 50 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, supporting millions of people living with HIV through a network of 1,056 global clinics, 79 healthcare centers in the U.S., 67 pharmacies, 96 wellness centers, 26 Out of the Closet thrift stores, outreach programs, and community partnerships,” the statement says.
“This accomplishment is far more than a number — it represents 3 million individuals whose lives have been touched by compassion, commitment, and the belief that healthcare is a human right,” Condessa M. Curley, the AHF board chair, said in a statement. “We extend our deepest gratitude to every member of the AHF team whose dedication made this milestone possible,” Curley said.
The AHF website notes the organization was founded in 1987 in Los Angeles as a network of hospices committed to “fighting for the living and caring for the dying” at a time when there was no effective treatment for HIV/AIDS. A statement on the website says since that time AHF has greatly expanded, converting its hospices into healthcare centers “and building a new paradigm for HIV care both in the United States and around the world.”
The statement adds, “Under the leadership of president and co-founder Michael Weinstein, AHF has grown from a group of friends dedicated to creating dignified hospice care to the largest AIDS organization in the world.” It says Weinstein “has been at the forefront of creating cutting-edge healthcare and advocacy programs and continues to drive the organization forward with the aim of saving more lives around the world.”
The statement announcing the milestone has also come at a time when more than 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV, “while hundreds of thousands continue to die annually from AIDS-related illnesses despite the availability of effective treatment.”
It says AHF’s response has included an expansion of its prevention and public health programs worldwide. In 2025 alone, according to the statement, AHF and its affiliated programs provided nearly five million free HIV tests globally and distributed more than 54 million free condoms, “underscoring the organization’s continued emphasis on both prevention and treatment.”
In D.C. AHF operates health care centers at 1701 K St., N.W., Ste. 400 [202-293-8680], 650 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Ste. 310 [202-350-5000], and 1647 Benning Road, N.E., Ste. 300 [202-350-5000].
Cannabis Culture
LGBTQ people, weed, and mental health: what you need to know
Community uses marijuana at much higher rates than general population
Uncloseted Media published this story on May 7.
By SPENCER MACNAUGHTON | In 2025, the global cannabis market size was valued at nearly $103 billion. By 2034, that number is expected to explode by roughly 1,400 percent to more than $1.43 trillion.
In short, as an increasing number of countries legalize marijuana use, everyone is starting to consume a lot more weed. And LGBTQ people tend to use cannabis at much higher rates than the general population. One study found that 55 percent of lesbian and 45 percent of gay young adults use marijuana, compared to about 33 percent and 37 percent, respectively, of their straight counterparts.
As LGBTQ people face a mental health crisis, the mainstream stereotypes that depict weed as an antidote for anxiety, panic and depression aren’t painting the full picture. And that could be exacerbating the mental health struggles so many queer people, and especially youth, face.
Here’s what the research demonstrates about marijuana and its effects on mental health:
- Multiple studies suggest a link between marijuana use and an increased risk of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and anxiety in individuals who are genetically predisposed.
- One study found that daily marijuana use, especially among younger people, makes some individuals seven times more likely to develop psychosis.
The increase in higher-potency strains of marijuana could pose unknown risks. In 1995, the average content of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in confiscated marijuana was less than 4 percent. In 2022, it was more than 16 percent. Researchers don’t know the full extent of the impact that these higher concentrations can have on mental health and especially on younger people whose brains are still developing.
- A systematic review of studies published between 2013 and 2025 found damning results for the mental health of young cannabis users:
They were 51 percent more likely to experience depression, 58 percent more likely to experience anxiety, between 50 and 65 percent more likely to experience suicidal ideation and 80 to 87 percent more likely to have attempted suicide.
- While the above stats paint a grim picture, there is also some research that suggests benefits of cannabis use:
- A 2025 systematic review found that “medicinal” weed showed some efficacy in relieving withdrawal symptoms of opioid use disorder. THC use has been associated with improvement of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, bipolar symptoms and sleep quality.
- Other studies found that THC administered in a controlled setting was associated with a decrease of symptoms and adverse effects for a range of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, psychotic symptoms, and anorexia nervosa.
Beyond what we pulled from academia, there is an astounding lack of information about the interplay between weed and mental health. As we dive deeper into Mental Health Awareness Month, I hope advocacy organizations, influencers and news outlets ramp up their coverage of this important topic that affects the countless LGBTQ weed smokers, many of whom are already struggling.
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