2022 Top HIV Science Stories

In the third year of the pandemic, COVID-19—and in particular long COVID— continued to be a concern for POZ readers (No. 11 and 17). But it was overshadowed by a new infectious disease that mainly impacted gay men: monkeypox, now renamed mpox (No. 4, 9, 12 and 18). Although mpox cases have declined dramatically since the outbreak’s peak in July and August, it remains a threat for people living with HIV, especially those with a detectable viral load or a low CD4 cell count (No. 5 and 8).

Now that antiretroviral treatment and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are highly effective and widely used, new therapies are not getting as much attention. But researchers did present findings suggesting that the long-acting treatment Cabenuva (cabotegravir and rilpivirine) might be appropriate for more people and that injectable treatment and PrEP could potentially be self-administered. And just last week—too late to make it into the annual ranking—the Food and Drug Administration approved the first HIV capsid inhibitor, Sunlenca (lenacapavir), as a twice-yearly treatment option for people with highly resistant HIV.

POZ readers also took an interest in a new prevention tool: using the antibiotic doxycycline after sex to prevent sexually transmitted infections, an approach dubbed doxyPEP (No. 13).

Finally, readers continue to eagerly seek HIV cure news (No. 6 and 16). While last year’s top stories prominently featured HIV vaccines, this year’s ranking includes a wide variety of experimental approaches, including checkpoint inhibitors (No. 1), CAR-T therapy (No. 2), mRNA vaccines (No. 14), broadly neutralizing antibodies (No. 10, 15 and 19) and—too late for the ranking—CRISPR gene editing to snip HIV out of cells.

Here are the POZ science news stories with the most views this year:

1. Cancer Immunotherapy Flushes HIV Out of Hiding
Posted: February 9

2. Researchers Explore CAR-T Therapy as a Potential Cure for HIV
Posted: November 28

3. A Majority of Transgender Women With HIV Are Undetectable
Posted: January 25

4. Study Reveals Novel Monkeypox Symptoms and Transmission Routes
Posted: July 23

5. A Large Proportion of Men with Monkeypox Are Living With HIV
Posted: August 23

6. People Who Start HIV Treatment With High CD4s Have a Smaller Viral Reservoir
Posted: July 6

7. Widely Used Meds Linked to Falls and Frailty in Older People With HIV
Posted: April 13

8. Monkeypox: What Do People Living With or at Risk for HIV Need to Know?
Posted: June 15

9. Monkeypox Reaches Multiple Countries, Including U.S.
Posted: May 24

10. Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Leads to Long-Term HIV Remission
Posted: May 11

11. Long COVID Symptoms Linked to Inflammation
Posted: June 29