Encouraging News About AIDS
Cautious optimism is the refrain of the 11th International Conference on AIDS, currently in session in Vancouver, Canada, and that comes as welcome news.
The conference brings physicians, researchers and scientists together to discuss what has been learned about the disease and the precipitating virus, HIV, that now afflicts 25 million people worldwide. Nationally, it is estimated that one in 300 Americans older than 13 has HIV. In recent years, the conferences have been dominated by daunting reports. Now, there is guarded hope of bringing the AIDS pandemic under control, though there remains no cure.
The biggest news: the effectiveness of combining a new generation of HIV-fighting drugs (protease inhibitors) with older reverse transcriptase inhibitors such as 3TC and AZT. Acting in concert, the drugs have at least temporarily reduced HIV viral concentrations to levels that cannot be detected with even the most sensitive techniques. This development allows the body’s immune system to rebound to a healthier status, which can promise a longer life to AIDS victims. In one study begun last year of 12 newly HIV-infected men, physicians have found no trace of the virus after nearly a year.
Still, these are short-term findings, and they point mostly to the possibility of treating HIV/AIDS as a chronic but manageable disease. The research, however, involves strains of the virus that are most prevalent in the United States. Questions remain about effectiveness involving strains found elsewhere.
There is still no cure for AIDS, and the search for a vaccine continues. Meanwhile, the new AIDS drugs cost up to $16,000 a year. That level of treatment is inaccessible for many Americans, not to mention AIDS patients in developing nations.
The lessons here include the continued need for early detection and HIV tests on an annual basis for everyone. Most important, people must be taught how to avoid the disease, particularly teenagers, who account for 25% of new HIV infections in the U.S. Learn and live.
