International AIDS specialists signaled hope that a cure for HIV may be within grasp, decades after the search began. Researchers announced Thursday that they’ve laid out a strategy to investigate a number of leads they think might lead to a cure. “Today’s the first step,” said Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the French Nobel laureate who was codiscoverer of the virus and co-chair of the research initiative. Sunday marks the start of the international AIDS conference, which will draw more than 20,000 scientists, activists, and lawmakers to Washington, D.C., to discuss how to stop the spread of the virus, which affects more than 34 million people worldwide. While making better drugs available to more people will do much for containing HIV, Barré-Sinoussi said that isn’t enough and thinks finding a cure “could be a realistic possibility.”

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