The 2019 Hawai’i to Zero HIV Conference

The 4th Hawaii to Zero HIV Prevention & Cure Conference was held at the Ala Moana Hotel in January 10, 2019. The Hawaii to Zero is an initiative of the Hawaii Center for AIDS with the vision of “Zero new HIV infections, zero deaths from HIV illness, and zero HIV-related stigma.”

The conference was organized by the Hawaii Center for AIDS and the Hawaii State Department of Health Harm Reduction Services Branch and was supported by funding from ViiV Healthcare, Hawai’i State Department of Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and Gilead Sciences.

Opening message from Dr. Jerris Hedges, Dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Sitting on the panel (from left to right): Dr. Cecilia Shikuma, Director of the Hawaii Center for AIDS; Michelle Wozniak, Public Health Educator at the Hawai’i State Department of Health; and Dr. Lishomwa Ndhlovu, Professor of Immunology at the Hawaii Center for AIDS.

Peter Whiticar, Chief of the Hawai’i State Department of Health Harm Reduction Services Branch, provided data on HIV incidence and viral load control in Hawaii.

The morning sessions focused on HIV prevention and ‘getting to zero’ in Hawai’i, while the afternoon sessions focused on HIV cure-related research. Investigational adjunct therapies, including latency reversal agents, negative checkpoint T cell blockade, and immunomodulatory therapies were presented.

Experts and community leaders discussing “undetectable = untransmittable” and how this impacts stigma reduction.

Leading scientists discuss HIV cure efforts. On the backdrop: Timothy Brown, ‘The Berlin Patient’, the first (and only) patient considered to have a sterilizing cure for HIV.

The meeting was attended by about 200 physicians, scientists, community leaders, and persons living with HIV. The 5th Hawaii to Zero conference is set to be held in January 2021.