Ethics Issues in HIV Cure Research

Newswise — A cure for HIV infection – the International AIDS Society meeting in Kuala Lumpur in early July offered new hope of the possibility, after researchers announced that two “Boston patients” had shown no resurgence of the virus after receiving a bone marrow transplant and ceasing their antiretroviral therapy (ART). Johns Hopkins bioethicist and physician Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA, author of an opinion published August 12 in Annals of Internal Medicine, is available for comment on the crucial ethical considerations in HIV cure research.

In his opinion, “HIV Cure Research: Expanding the Ethical Considerations” Sugarman highlights the importance of considering and managing risk for the sexual partners of research subjects, and maintaining confidentiality as has been done with such geographic monikers as the “Boston patients” and the “Mississippi baby.”

“Findings can easily be misinterpreted, needlessly inflating hope,” Sugarman writes, stressing the need for balanced, accessible public information about HIV cure research. Good science and the welfare of research participants depend on addressing critical ethical issues from the outset, Sugarman says.

Sugarman is the Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine and deputy director for medicine at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

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About the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of BioethicsOne of the largest bioethics centers in the world, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is the home for collaborative scholarship and teaching on the ethics of clinical practice, public health and biomedical science at Johns Hopkins University. Since 1995, the Institute has worked with governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations and private sector organizations to address and resolve ethical issues. Institute faculty members represent such disciplines as medicine, nursing, law, philosophy, public health and the social sciences. More information is available at www.bioethicsinstitute.org