We are close to eliminating transmission like that.

We used to have transmission rates from infected mothers to infants of about 30 to 40 per cent. We haven't stopped viral replication in human beings, but we are able to control it so that they can live a normal and healthy life.

Scientists were able to develop antiretrovirals (ARV) and figure out the combination of antiretrovirals that enabled us to control viral replication. We now use the most advanced drug combination for treatment of AIDS patients. How much more do we know now about the virus that causes AIDS, what it does to the body, and how we help women fight it?ĪIDS was inevitably fatal and is now a chronic, manageable condition due to a constellation of factors. You've been researching HIV for 30 years. She told SciDev.Net that rapid progress against the disease means scientists are now close to eliminating transmission from infected mothers to infants, which had stood at about 30 to 40 per cent. She has become one of the world's leading epidemiologists and made major contributions to the global understanding of how HIV affects young women.Īs associate scientific director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Abdool Karim has been honoured by science bodies around the world for her ground-breaking research on HIV prevention. Quarraisha Abdool Karim has spent the past three decades studying HIV and AIDS.

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