AIDS continues to make headlines as the deadly disease spreads across the planet. Although in general it remains among the most serious challenges to health, scholarly achievements in treatment and prevention of the disease have made hope less remote. Scientists all over the world continue to work on advancing the methods of treating AIDS. At the same time, many people are interested in preventing AIDS so as to ward off the possibility of the spreading epidemic.
The standard for treating AIDS is now the combination therapy also named HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy). It is so called because it combines a variety of drugs including Nucleoside/tide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs), for example, abacavir or didanosine, Protease Inhibitors (PIs), including amprenavir and saquinavir, and Non-nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NnRTIs). The treatment is meant to reduce the levels of HIV in the bloodstream so as to minimize the risk for the patient.
Hoffman et al (1998) note that out of gay men on combination therapy about 23% felt that AIDS was almost treatable. Scholars continue to explore the nature of the HIV virus so as to be able to come up with research methods that will permit progress in the treatment. The isolation of the HIV virus helped create protease inhibitors. However, the treatments invented cannot recreate immunity in the patient.
At the same time, by 2001 “30 vaccines against HIV have been tested, most in phase 1 or phase 2 trials to determine their safety and immunogenicity” (Gwynne, Heebner, 2001). Pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health in the US spend great funds on research in this area; however, a vaccine has not yet been invented. References Kelly J. , Hoffman R. , Rompa D. J. , & Gray M. L. (1998, Jun 28-Jul 3). AIDS treatment advances and perceived need to maintain safer sex practices among gay and bisexual men.
International Conference on AIDS, 12:422. Gwynne, P. , & Heebner, G. (2001). Advances in Immunology and AIDS Research. Retrieved July 21, 2006, from http://www. sciencemag. org/products/lttaidsnew. dtl Palella, F. J. Jr, Delaney, K. M. , Moorman, A. C. , Loveless, M. O. , Fuhrer, J. , Satten, G. A. , Aschman and D. J. , Holmberg, S. D. (1998). Declining morbidity and mortality among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection. HIV Outpatient Study Investigators. New England Journal of Medicine 338 (13), 853-860.