Yesterday, March 4, was the first full day of the 2014 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)Exit Disclaimer in Boston. Over 4,000 HIV/AIDS research leaders from 85 countries are gathered at the annual scientific meeting discussing their work to understand, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and related infectious diseases. We’ve invited our colleague Dr. Carl Dieffenbach to share daily conference highlights this week. Carl is the Director of the Division of AIDS at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Dieffenbach observes that two important co-infections associated with HIV were in the spotlight on Tuesday: hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human papillomavirus (HPV). NIH scientists were among those contributing to the conference-wide conversations on these issues. Among those: possible long lasting drugs.

• A plenary presentation by Dr. Douglas Lowy of NIH’s National Cancer Institute, HPV Vaccines: Progress To Date and Future Worldwide DirectionsExit Disclaimer.
• A presentation by Dr. Anita Kohli of NIH’s Critical Care Medicine Department, Combination Oral, Hepatitis C Antiviral Therapy for 6 or 12 Weeks: Final Results of the SYNERGY TrialExit Disclaimer.
• A presentation by NIAID’s Dr. Eric Meissner, Rapid Peripheral In Vivo Cellular Changes During Interferon-Free Treatment of Hepatitis CExit Disclaimer.

Dr. Dieffenbach also shares that other recurring topics during the conference’s first day included the continuum of HIV care and the promise on new research on agents that could possibly provide long-lasting effects, which would reduce dosing frequency and could help address adherence issues for both HIV prevention and treatment.

View his re-cap below:

We’ll be back tomorrow with Dr. Dieffenbach’s highlights from the conference.