The United States journal Science has named research led by Myron S. Cohen, MD., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as the 2011 Scientific Breakthrough of the Year. The program, known as the HIV Prevention Trials Network 052 study looked into whether antiretroviral drugs can prevent the transmission of HIV amongst couples where only one partner has HIV. They discovered that early treatment with antiretroviral dropped the contagion rate by 96%.

In a period spanning 20 years since the first anti HIV drugs came onto the market, It took until 2000 to consider the concept was strong enough to being tested, and another ten to obtain the results. Dr Cohen’s work was funded by the HIV Prevention Trials Network, which itself is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with additional funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health, both part of the National Institutes of Health.