The unnamed “London patient” — the second person apparently cured of H.I.V. — earned all the headlines. But other research released this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections showed that scientists are making slow but steady progress on the tactics and medicines needed to fight the epidemic, especially in Africa.

Monthly injections of long-acting H.I.V. drugs proved as good as daily pills at suppressing the virus, according to two trials involving more than 1,000 patients. In another study, Descovy, a new formulation of the H.I.V. treatment Truvada, proved just as effective at suppressing the virus, and may have fewer — or at least different — side effects.

A study of the “test and treat” strategy in one million people in South Africa and Zambia — the largest H.I.V. prevention study ever conducted — produced mixed results.

Offering widespread home testing plus treatment to the sickest patients did reduce the number of new infections. But offering immediate treatment to all did not help as much as had been expected.