Ending the Epidemic

About 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV today, and one out of every seven people with HIV is unaware of their infection.

Carolina’s faculty, staff and students are working to reduce those numbers. They’re attacking HIV through research, education and outreach to improve the lives of patients, prevent transmission and eradicate the virus entirely.

A lot of our research over time has been adopted at the country-level, and to see it being incorporated and really reducing HIV transmission is very satisfying. That’s been a high point for so many of us [at Carolina].

Mina Hosseinipour, UNC Project Malawi

Carolina's HIV Research

Through the Years

1981 Infectious diseases clinician Dr. Myron Cohen treats Carolina’s first patient living with AIDS. Within months, the hospital’s 30-bed AIDS ward fills to capacity.
1995 Infectious diseases clinician Dr. Joe Eron discovers that combinations of antiretroviral therapy suppress HIV better than single-drug therapy.
2008 The UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases establishes research sites in Malawi and China to investigate HIV prevention and treatment.
2011 A study by Dr. Myron Cohen proves that treating people living with HIV prevents transmission to non-infected sexual partners.
2013 Vivian Go begins working at Carolina. She continues her studies of HIV among injection drug users in Vietnam.
2015 Carolina and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline announce a novel, public-private partnership called Qura Therapeutics with the goal of finding a cure for HIV.
August 2016 The Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication led by Dr. David Margolis receives $23 million from the NIH to identify a cure for HIV.
September 2016 Dr. Lisa Hightow-Weidman receives NIH funding to develop mobile apps for youth at risk for or living with HIV.
2017 Researchers launch three HIV prevention studies to test a once daily pill, a long-acting injection and an infusion of antibodies to prevent HIV.
2019 UNC School of Medicine investigators are awarded $2.91 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create an ultra-long-acting HIV drug delivery implant.

Taking on HIV and AIDS

Carolina students provide free HIV and STI testing
At two community clinics in the Triangle, Carolina students of several professional school disciplines are coming together to make HIV testing accessible and stigma-free.
Filling in the gaps of AIDS prevention
An innovative, Carolina-born method for stopping the spread of HIV is saving lives across Sub-Saharan Africa.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health launches Zambia Hub
The hub includes a project that explores whether the distribution of HIV self-test kits to pregnant women will increase HIV testing among their male partners.
The hunt for a cure
"We’re trying to develop a new medical therapy – something that has never been done – the eradication of a viral infection that is integrated into the host’s genome."

Carolina's HIV Research

Through the Years

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