Diseases STDs

HIV persists in treated individuals by the establishment of latency and long term reservoirs. It is known that a deletion on the CCR5 coreceptor gene can provide some kind of resistance to HIV. Therapeutic attempts to mimic this situation are promising.

HIV “resistance”

Several genetic factors are linked to a slower disease progression or to resistance at acquiring HIV. For example, some markers of the HLA system (HLA B27, HLA B57) are associated with a slower progression in already infected individuals. Continue reading ‘HIV Reservoirs Part 6: Gene Therapy’ »

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Anti-HIV therapy refers to using a combination of anti-retroviral drugs to block viral replication, relieve HIV symptoms and delay the progression of the disease. This treatment has become so successful that researchers have observed dramatic decreases in morbidity and mortality in countries having access to it. The success of anti-HIV therapy has also caused quite a stir in regards to providing universal access to it.

The World Health Organization, WHO for short, announced in 2003 that they were going to provide antiretroviral drugs to three million people that live in low and middle-income countries by 2005. This was affectionately called the 3 by 5 target and was the first stepping stone of many to provide universal access to anti-HIV therapy. This goal was successful at introducing antiretroviral drugs to over a million people, but it was not accomplished until 2007. In 2006, WHO set another goal to implement universal access to anti-HIV therapy, including prevention, treatment, and care, by 2010. As the reports started coming out in 2008, it was clear that this goal was not going to be reached by 2010. Continue reading ‘Universal Access to Anti-HIV Therapy’ »

In the 30 years since AIDS was first discovered, millions of individuals throughout the world have lost their lives. The scientists and researchers devoted to combating both HIV and AIDS have made incredible progress over the last few decades but there is still no cure or effective vaccine. Antiviral therapy has helped individuals to live normal lives and has greatly reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths throughout the world. HIV is often considered to be a chronic disease rather than one that brings with it an automatic death sentence thanks to the drugs available but an individual will require lifelong therapy. In spite of the many advances of that have been made, there are still troublesome issues that must be resolved.

Pharmacogenomics is a fairly recent science which is focused on individualizing a person’s therapy in order to decrease toxicities and improve success rates for drug therapy. The pharmacogenomics of HIV therapy helps researchers take into account the genetic diversity of both the virus and the individual. This approach to drug therapy reduces failure rates as well as both the long and short term toxicities of the antiviral drugs used to treat the virus. The current approach to treating HIV and AIDS is intended to prolong the patient’s life by suppressing viral replication. Continue reading ‘The Pharmacogenomics Of HIV Therapy – A New Approach’ »

Antiretroviral therapy, or ART, has been a tremendous benefit to HIV patients. Because of ART, fewer people are progressing from HIV to AIDS. As a result, they’re living longer, healthier lives. The key, of course, is staying with the therapy regimen and taking the medicines as scheduled, on time, as prescribed by a doctor. This is called the adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and is an important thing to consider when examining the rate in which HIV patients progress to AIDS. Are they sticking with it or not? It’s the second leading predictor of progression from HIV to AIDS-only CD4 cell count is a better one. While long-term progression to AIDS requires close to 100% ART adherence, current calculations put the average ART adherence rate at 70%, which isn’t even close to where it should be for long-term survival.

As stated before, more than 95% adherence is needed for long-term viral suppression. In order to achieve this level of ART adherence, an HIV-positive patient must take the daily treatment regimen and not miss or delay a dose more than 3 times in a month. This level of adherence is far greater than those of other chronic diseases and is much more difficult to maintain. Patients have to be meticulous about taking their medicine. Continue reading ‘Adherence To HIV Antiretroviral Therapy’ »

The planet recently celebrated a birthday, although celebrate is a term used loosely. In fact, it is not really the right word at all, though there seems to be a lack of a better word. How do you celebrate the birth of a monster that, although greatly injured, still infected and threatened to kill 2.6 million people worldwide in 2009? The monster is HIV/ AIDS, and it just turned 30. While it is surely much older than that, the awareness and world retaliation really began 30 years ago. As a global community the world has fought valiantly with many successes, but failures as well. Game changers have come into play, and for much of the world diagnosis is now that of a chronic illness rather than a death sentence.

While this is a great thing, the monster still has not been stopped. Great strides have been made however. Recently, on May 12, 2011, the early closure of a clinical trial was announced by the US National Institutes of Health. This trial was testing the ability of antiretroviral drug therapy to reduce the likelihood of transmitting the disease. The trial was closed early due to the early indication of very positive results. This is a game changer in the response to and the fight against HIV and AIDS. The thirty year old emergency response is over now. Now is the time to set long term goals and make a plan to meet them. Continue reading ‘AIDS At 30: Taking The Response To The Next Level’ »

AIDS is the advanced stage of HIV infection. The criteria of AIDS include HIV infection with fewer than 200 CD4 positive T cells per cubic millimeter of blood (norm is more than 1,000), and two dozens of opportunistic infections, which rarely affect normal people. Opportunistic means that the infection took opportunity of the weakened immune system. AIDS-related infections are often very severe and caused by unusual bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.

Continue reading ‘What are the Symptoms of AIDS?’ »

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