Larry Kramer is a pivotal figure in the history of HIV/AIDS. His activism on many fronts has been widely credited with changing public health policy and speeding up access to experimental medications for people infected with the virus. So when he says that the fight for treatment is not enough but “The battle cry now must be one word — cure, cure, cure!” People pay attention.

A few years ago it might have been considered dangerously optimistic to use the word “cure” in any conversation about HIV/AIDS, but that’s no longer the case. In fact cure is something that is becoming not just a wildly ambitious dream, but something that scientists are working hard to achieve right now.

On Tuesday, October 6^th, we are going to hold an HIV/AIDS Cure Town Hall meeting in Palm Springs. This will be the third event we’ve held and the previous two, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, were hugely successful. It’s not hard to understand why. Our experts are going to be talking about their work in trying to eradicate the AIDS virus from people infected with it.

This includes clinical trials run by Calimmune and City of Hope/Sangamo, plus some truly cutting edge research by Dr. Paula Cannon of the University of Southern California.

The clinical trials are both taking similar, if slightly different, approaches to reach the same goal; functionally curing people with HIV. They take the patient’s own blood stem cells and genetically modify them so that the AIDS virus is no longer able to infect them. They also help boost the patient’s T cells, a key part of a healthy immune system and the virus’ main target, so that they can fight back against the virus. It’s a kind of one-two punch to block and eventually evict the virus.

This work is based on the real-life experiences of Timothy Ray Brown, the “Berlin Patient”. He became the first person ever cured of HIV/AIDS when he got a bone marrow transplant from a person with a natural resistance to HIV. This created a new blood supply and a new immune system both of which were resistant to HIV.

Timothy is going to be joining us at the event in Palm Springs to share his story and show that cure is not just a word it’s a goal; one that we can now think of as being possible.

The HIV/AIDS Cure Town Hall event will be held on Tuesday, October 6^th in the Sinatra Auditorium at the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. Doors open at 6pm and the program starts at 6.30pm. And of course, it’s free.