CROI 2014: Advances in antiretroviral therapy

The 2014 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) highlighted important advances in antiretroviral therapy, with an emphasis on HIV eradication strategies. Follow-up information about the Mississippi baby who remains free of HIV infection off antiretroviral therapy was presented, and a second baby and 1 adult may also have been cured with very early initiation of antiretroviral therapy. The HIV care cascade was again a major focus of the conference. Investigators from around the world presented data on the implementation, and limitations, of the care cascade paradigm. Scale-up of antiretroviral therapy continues and a number of presentations featured optimal ways to measure the impact of these efforts by applying lessons from implementation science and health care economics. Encouraging results from expanded prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs, especially Option B+, were highlighted. Extensive data on transmitted (primary) drug resistance in the United States and Europe were presented.