Soon India will come out with a defined research agenda, in collaboration with international research institutes, to tap the potential of Indian traditional medicines in the area of HIV/AIDS cure.

With this aim, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in association with the Samueli Institute of USA, Johns Hopkins CCGHE and King Edward Memorial Hospital recently organised a two-day 'Research Agenda Conference on Traditional Indian Medicine for HIV/AIDS' in New Delhi.

The conference tried to develop a broad research agenda to further evaluate the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of traditional Indian medicine in managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Another aim of the meet was to track the epidemiology of traditional Indian medicine use, including prevalence, patterns and trends of use, effectiveness of traditional Indian therapies for HIV/AIDS including anti-retroviral effects, immuno-modulation and quality-of-life outcomes and safety issues including quality control, standardization, and interactions between traditional Indian medicines and antiretroviral therapy.

This international conference was participated by selected conventional HIV/AIDS clinicians, practitioners of traditional Indian medicine, research scientists and Indian government officials. The meet tried to develop a focused and feasible research agenda that will identify and assess the impact traditional Indian medicine has on HIV care and treatment in India, with focus on epidemiology, safety and effectiveness of traditional Indian medicines for HIV/AIDS.

The meet also looked at identifying and assessing further the impact traditional Indian medicine has on HIV care and treatment in India with a view to come out with an elaborate report on the state of the science on all the major systems of traditional Indian medicine in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Another aim of the meet is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations among conventional HIV/AIDS clinicians, practitioners of traditional Indian medicine, research scientists and Indian government officials, with the goal of implementing this research agenda.