Science examines HIV prevention trials, challenges to implementing new strategies

Science examines recent successes in clinical trials in the HIV prevention field, limitations to mathematical models resulting from these trials, and funding issues facing campaigns to ramp up HIV prevention interventions. "[M]odels now suggest that combining [prevention strategies] might virtually stop HIV's spread," but "there's a vast difference between a study having success and thwarting HIV in the real world," according to Science. "Models only point out routes to ending AIDS, and many will surely differ," the magazine writes, concluding, "But for the first time since AIDS surfaced 31 years ago, many researchers believe the destination itself is no longer a mirage" (Cohen, 12/9).