Recent Development in AIDS Research

Today, for most of the world, the only practical way of control is through minimizing transmission. This requires education programs to promote the application of condoms and also discouraging sexual promiscuity. Likewise, receiving regular and routine STD check-ups at STD clinics can help prevent the spread. In high-income nations, the accessibility of medication has made HIV infection no longer a certain death sentence. Unfortunately, enhancements in controlling HIV infection have resulted in a relaxed attitude toward safe sex practices.



The actual fact is often ignored that the available drugs only hold off the progress of the infection, they aren't a cure. Attempts to prevent the usage of contaminated needles amongst IUDs will also be crucial. To be effective, educational programs often require fundamental social alterations that are not easy to achieve, however they have slowed the infection rate in some areas. The fast 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 by which HIV can be transmitted. An effective vaccine would have to defend against transmission by way of diverse mucosal routes that's 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 complete protection, such as those for smallpox or measles. It is believed 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 progress has been made in the use of chemotherapy to hinder HIV infections. To reproduce, the virus makes use if certain protease enzymes that slice proteins into pieces, that are then re-assembled into the coat of new HIV particles. Drugs known as protease inhibitors hinder this enzyme and are now in use.



Because of the increasing number of drugs that manage 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 therapy is affordable. The rapid reproductive rate and frequent occurrence of drug-resistance mutations dictates that multiple medicines, given concurrently, must be used. The highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a therapy consisting of administering drug combinations. Patients are often required to take as much as 40 pills daily on a complex schedule, which must be adhered to rigorously since the virus is unforgiving. Even so, resistant strains of the virus are likely to 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'd 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.







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