Ethics of HIV and hepatitis B cure research

Achieving a cure for HIV or hepatitis B virus (HBV) is expected to have a range of salutary effects including eliminating the need for continued treatments, minimizing risk to sexual and injecting partners, reducing prevalence, and decreasing stigma. Nevertheless, conducting research to achieve such laudable goals is necessarily associated with a broad set of ethical challenges. This review aims at describing key findings from selected peer-reviewed literature published in the last 2 years (2018-2019) that enhance understanding of some of these issues.

A variety of ethical issues in HIV cure research have been informed by recent conceptual and empirical scholarship. These include: analytical treatment interruptions; attitudes towards participation; responsibilities to nonparticipants; consent and terminology; and selected other issues.

Understanding of the ethical issues in HIV cure research has been enhanced by sustained normative and empirical scholarship with a range of stakeholders. This work has crucial implications for HBV cure research, but there is also a pressing need for directed work on HBV cure research. In both HIV and HBV cure research, such scholarship promises to help ensure that critically important research efforts are ethically sound.