I wish terribly that I could tell you that a cure for HIV is right around the corner. Alas, I can’t. What I can tell you, however, is that for the first time in decades we are beginning to see flickers of hope and real promise. What’s needed at this point is care and support to nourish those flickers into flame and a quick pace to ensure that they don’t get snuffed out before they’ve had a chance to blaze a path to victory.

Here’s what I do promise: if you will take just ten minutes to fill out the survey found here you will be doing something concrete that may help us ensure that cure-research is as speedy as possible.

At issue is how much risk the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow people with HIV to take and to what degree they will allow each individual make their own choice about that risk. We don’t yet know how the FDA will make decisions about these kinds of risks, as the branch of the FDA charged with overseeing the development of many of the possible therapies hasn’t offered people with HIV the chance to give input.

For a brief summary of the kinds of research that have great promise and that are soon to enter human testing visit https://www.poz.com/article/project-inform-leader-hiv-hepatitis-c-advocacy-likely-close’ll take the time to fill out the survey. We’d particularly like to ensure that our survey reaches all types of people with HIV and has diversity of race, gender and age. Of course this survey won’t directly and immediately lead to a cure for HIV, but the mile-deep Grand Canyon was made by trillions of drops of rain, and every person we get to answer the survey represents one of those raindrops. We  hope you’ll make your voice heard.