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A Statement from the Leadership of the Institute of Human Virology on World AIDS Day

December 01, 2015

World AIDS Day

Since 1988, we have sadly set aside December 1stas the date on our calendars because of the AIDS pandemic that has taken so many of our loved ones from us.

We’re often asked about our progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS and we always answer that we can do more. Biomedical research needs to grow and to do that we need charitable support.

Research has been a driving force throughout our careers, and has led to many breakthroughs in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Research led Dr. Robert Gallo’s lab to co-discover HIV as the cause of AIDS decades ago and to develop the HIV blood test.

Research enabled treatment to be developed for HIV/AIDS, allowing the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (which Dr. Gallo heads and co-founded with his colleagues Drs. William Blattner and Robert Redfield) to develop a promising HIV vaccine candidate, treat nearly 6,000 patients annually in Baltimore, and care for more than 1 million people in Africa and the Caribbean since 2004.

And research will lead us to a functional cure for HIV (see IHV’s Fall 2015 Discovery Newsletter for Dr. Gallo’s thoughts on HIV/AIDS cure research).

Will you join us in this mission to cure HIV/AIDS with your gift to research?

The work of our IHV physicians and scientists on HIV/AIDS, along with co-infections like hepatitis B and C or virus-linked cancers, has advanced immeasurably. For example, we are curing hepatitis C in our clinics.

Basic science research is the foundation for everything; without it, there would be no drug therapy and no vaccines.

There would be no one like Kathy Bennett, who is both a patient and employee of IHV. Kathy, an AIDS-defined patient when she walked through our clinic doors, joined our team as a treatment coach, giving support and guidance for fellow HIV-positive patients. “My purpose is to give hope to the ones that come in here broken,” she says.

Can you help others find their purpose with your gift to IHV today? Your gift in honor of World AIDS Day will take us one step closer to the day when HIV/AIDS is ended. That day can be sooner rather than later with your help.

Thank you for helping fund the discoveries that will change the lives of so many, including Kathy.

December 1st has become a rallying point for all of us who support the work still needed to end this epidemic. To make your gift to IHV securely online, please visit www.medschool.umaryland.edu/WorldAIDSDay.

Thank you.

Contact

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Bressler Research Building 14-002
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-1559

Contact Media Relations
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