The Latest in AIDS Research

These days, for the majority of the world, the only practical means of control is by minimizing transmission

. This requires education programs to promote the usage of condoms in addition to discouraging sexual promiscuity. Also, receiving regular and routine STD check-ups at STD clinics can help prevent the spread. In high-income nations, the availability of medication has made HIV infection no longer a certain death sentence. Unfortunately, enhancements in controlling HIV infection have led to a relaxed attitude toward safe sex practices.

The actual fact tends to be overlooked that the available drugs only hold up the progress of the infection, they are not a cure. Attempts to prevent the use of contaminated needles among IUDs are also critical. To be effective, educational programs often demand fundamental social alterations that are not simple to achieve, however they have slowed the infection rate in some areas. The quick mutation pace of HIV makes it hard to create a vaccine that is efficient against all types of the virus. Another obstacle is the variety of routes through which HIV can be transmitted. A highly effective vaccine would need to defend against transmission via diverse mucosal routes that is proving to be the intangible goal in tests with simian immunodeficiency virus that have been performed in monkeys.

Some experts believe that no HIV vaccine can be done that will confer nearly total protection, such as those for smallpox or measles. It is thought that a more practical goal may be to develop a vaccine which will stimulate cell-mediated immunity in already infected individuals and assist the patient's immune system to clear the virus. Much improvement has been made in the usage of chemotherapy to hinder HIV infections. To recreate, the virus makes use if certain protease enzymes that cut proteins into pieces, that are then re-assembled into the coat of new HIV particles. Drugs called protease inhibitors prevent this enzyme and are now in use.

Because of the increasing number of drugs that control reproduction of the virus, at least temporarily, HIV infection is almost at the stage where it can be considered a treatable chronic illness, assuming that the treatment is inexpensive. The rapid reproductive rate and frequent occurrence of drug-resistance mutations dictates that multiple medicines, given simultaneously, is employed. The highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a therapy comprising administering drug combinations. Patients are often required to take as many as 40 pills per day on a complex schedule, which must be adhered to rigorously because the virus is unforgiving. However, resistant strains of the virus will probably emerge.

The AIDS epidemic provides clear evidence of the value of basic scientific AIDS research. Without the advances in molecular biology of the past few decades, we would have been unable even to identify the causative agent of AIDS. We would not have been able to develop the tests for screening donated blood, to identify points in the viral life cycle for which selectively toxic drugs could be developed, or even monitor the course of the infection. In the lifetime of most of us, we will have the opportunity to witness medical history being made as the battle with this lethal and elusive virus continues.

The Latest in AIDS Research

By: Christopher Volman

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