Are You HIV Poz? An Important Survey To Help HIV Cure Research

Are you HIV Positive? If so, you should take this important information gathering survey to help researchers find a cure in our lifetime!

If you are living with HIV and reside in the United States or its territories, are at least 18 years of age, and want to share your opinion with us about HIV cure strategies, we invite you to take this survey.

Here is the correct hyperlink to the survey: http://bit.ly/2DoCx8e

Survey on HIV Cure Research

There has been an increase in HIV cure-related research in the recent years. Many approaches are being investigated in the United States and other countries.

We would like to find out what people living with HIV in the United States who might one day decide to join a study think about HIV cure research, including their willingness to participate in HIV cure studies. By HIV cure studies, we mean those that involve collecting blood or tissue or even trying new types of drugs and therapies as a first step towards a cure. In particular, we are interested in how people view the potential risks and benefits of different kinds of strategies (a strategy might involve taking different combinations of pills and injections for several weeks and then seeing what happens) and how they view these strategies compared to current HIV medications.

You are eligible to complete this survey if you are:

• At least 18 years of age
• Living with HIV
• Willing to give your opinion about HIV cure strategies
• Live in the United States or its territories

We are interested to find out what you think about:

• Your current health and experience with HIV treatment
• Your previous participation in HIV research
• Factors that would affect your motivation to participate in HIV cure-related research
• Factors that you would find most valuable about an HIV cure strategy
• Factors that would represent improvements over your current HIV treatment
• Trade-offs that you would be willing to make in the search for a cure for HIV

What is HIV cure research?
HIV cure research is an umbrella term. Most studies going on right now aren’t testing something we hope will cure HIV today. In fact, most experts think it will take time to find a new strategy that can control HIV for long periods of time, and maybe eliminate the virus completely. On the way there, we need to understand:

• Why and how HIV is able to stick around in the body even when we successfully fight against it with HIV medications;
• What factors might allow scientists to eliminate the HIV that is hidden and unreachable by our immune system (the cells in our body that defend us); and
• How strategies aimed at finding, killing and controlling the virus might be used alone or together to safely accomplish HIV elimination and control.

There are two main approaches being investigated:

1. Lasting control of HIV without current HIV medications (antiretroviral therapy) without eliminating the virus – sometimes called a ‘functional cure’; and
2. Complete clearance of HIV from the body (often called a ‘elimination’ or ‘eradicating’ cure).

Engaging People with HIV in Dialogue
The opinions of people living with HIV are very important for us to focus time, money and attention on research that will lead to HIV cure strategies that make the most difference in people’s lives. The opinions and preferences of people with HIV must also be used to help design HIV cure studies that are acceptable, safe and ethical.

Time to Complete
This survey will take between 30 and 45 minutes to complete. We recommend that you only start this survey when you have the time to dedicate to complete it. You can come back and start this survey at a more convenient time if you wish, but you must complete the survey in one sitting.

Thank You 
We thank you in advance for your participation and support.

Prize Drawing
At the end of the survey, you have the opportunity to enter a prize drawing. One in every ten participants will be randomly selected to receive a Visa gift card with a value of $20.00 in U.S. dollars.

If you want to be considered for the drawing, you will need to provide an email address and/or a phone number at the end of the survey to be contacted if you win. Your name, email address and phone number will be stored separately from the information you provide as part of this survey and will be kept confidential.