by Sugar Cane

Created on: May 04, 2008

Antiviral drugs(HAART "highly active antiretroviral therapy)have saved lives of a lot of people. One of the first drugs to be developed was zidovudine(AZT) in 1964. In the beginning the drug was tested as a possible cancer treatment and was not used as HIV treatment until 1987 when it was approved by the FDA. Back in th e 1980's dosages of AZT were extremely high making people sicker than the virus itself, and it was the only treatment known. Also AZT(zidovudine) caused a lot of side effects most of the time anemia, changes in body fat, nausea. Unfortunately AZT does not destroy the HIV virus, but rather halts the viral replication so the immune system can destroy some of the virus.

Many people can reduce their viral loads(amount of virus in the blood) below the level of the detection on the test. But some of the virus hides inside the cells where the drugs cannot reach. Some of these cells get replaced, body removes some of the old cells, that process happens in everyone healthy people too. Today there are over thirty different drugs to fight HIV an each year we make some new ones, many people would ask why should we search for a cure the answer is: the drugs might not work forever(lifetime), anyone can get infected no matter the color, social,economic background.

Some of the new drugs that are in the pipeline are so powerful, that perhaps once they are able to control the viral replication the immune system will get rid of any remaining infected cells. Scientist also say that the current antiretroviral drugs, do not stop all the viral replication. So if we were able to stop all viral replication close to 99.9 percent the viral decrease would follow much faster therefore resulting in eradicating(curing HIV). Of course finding the right treatment and activating all the resting(latent cells containing virus) might take some time but its all a very exciting thought.

One of the most known scientist is Dr. Fauci at the National Institutes of Health, his research group found that in seven HIV-positive people who used antivirals shortly after being infected with HIV, there was a decline in the amount of pro-virus by 50% every 4.6 months, the scientists estimated that 7.7 years of the antiviral therapy could lead to eradication of HIV. The experiment is being researched,and we can remain hopeful about the future.

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