Dr. Edward Nelson Kankaka, the lead Research Scientist in the REACH project, reveals that the ongoing studies are part of a collaborative research project by both local and international scientists. These researchers are primarily focused on creating a broader understanding of the HIV cure and its viral persistence from an African perspective.
The Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) is undertaking advanced research studies toward finding a potential cure for HIV. The ongoing study, dubbed Research Enterprise to Advance a Cure for HIV (REACH), is being conducted in a community cohort of 90 people living with the virus in the districts of Rakai and Kyotera.
Dr. Edward Nelson Kankaka, the lead Research Scientist in the REACH project, reveals that the ongoing studies are part of a collaborative research project by both local and international scientists. These researchers are primarily focused on creating a broader understanding of the HIV cure and its viral persistence from an African perspective.
He explains that the study is examining the HIV reservoirs in the human body and the behavior of the virus while it is in hiding so that they can devise means of locating and permanently controlling it. Dr. Kankaka says that while the research has previously succeeded in developing scientific interventions that eliminate the risk of acquiring the virus and suppressing the viral load in the human body through the administration of commodities such as Post and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP medicines), a complete therapy has remained unfound.
Through various procedures, the research team is continuously taking samples from selected individuals and subjecting them to high-tech scientific experiments to examine the behavior of HIV to devise mechanisms for overpowering it.
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Dr. Kankaka explains that the study is being conducted through multidisciplinary collaborations between basic, applied, and clinical researchers from both Uganda and the United States of America. These researchers are now committing efforts toward finding a permanent solution to the most prevalent HIV subtype, which, by coincidence, is in Africa.
He indicates that given the progress registered over the last ten years of the study, the research team is hopeful that the ultimate objective may be realized.
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For over a decade, scientists in different parts of the world have been conducting studies on how people living with HIV can completely eliminate the virus through treatment. However, some of these studies have been discontinued in laboratories.
Dr. Kankanka says that they now have the blessing of the International AIDS Society, which in 2021 launched a strategic plan in the quest for finding an HIV cure. He notes that with such a clearly defined direction and strategic collaborations, their research is receiving the necessary support.
