Ending Aids
Documentary (55 min.)

Ending Aids is the story of man against nature, of a deadly microbe that exists only to reproduce, and the scientists racing to stop it. This quest to defeat a highly evolved virus takes viewers from high-tech labs, to clinics where dying patients seek treatment. It addresses the scientific, political, ethical, and organizational challenges of stopping the signature pandemic of our time.
Ending Aids looks at new experiments that attempt to teach the immune system to protect against HIV. We follow the clues to a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where a handful of prostitutes, who have been repeatedly exposed to the virus, have mysteriously remained disease free. The program looks at the promising results of researchers like Ron Desrosiers who, working with the monkey equivalent of HIV called SIV, created a version of the virus stripped of certain genes that has actually protected monkeys from infection. While most scientists are unwilling to test this approach in humans, with 15,000 new HIV infections a day, some scientists think such a risk may eventually be warranted.
Ending Aids is a story in progress. There have been more failures than successes to date in the search for an AIDS vaccine. Millions of lives and years of time have slipped away. But the field remains optimistic. Vaccines are proven, powerful medicine, and the time is ripe for a renewed commitment to put the best minds to the task of reining in the most destructive disease of modern times. Perhaps never before has so much ridden on our ability to defeat a single defiant virus.