Aids: The Latest News

AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV. Most people who are infected with HIV eventually develop AIDS. There may be a small percentage of people with HIV who will never develop AIDS. When people develop AIDS, their immune systems are slowly destroyed. People with AIDS get diseases called opportunistic diseases or infections. Once the weakened immune system no longer provides protection from these diseases, the person dies.

The bad news about HIV is that it continues to be spread at alarming rates. Approximately 42 million people in the world have HIV. Nearly a million of them live in the United States. Many people with HIV have not been tested and do not realize they have the virus. Each year, the number of new cases increases significantly throughout the world. Young people under the age of 25 represent half of all new HIV infection cases.

There is good news, however, about new treatments for HIV and AIDS. Many new discoveries are helping people with HIV. There are three classes of medications that are helping people with HIV. They work by keeping the virus from reproducing and spreading. They are nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs).

The usually preferred treatment for HIV is a triple drug combination of these types of drugs. This is called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (also called HAART or hart). Using a combination of drugs together can slow the progression of HIV disease. Working with each patient, the provider can determine what is the best combination of drugs for each patient. No one is sure how long it will take people to develop resistance to these drugs.

Research is being done on other new drugs, therapies, and vaccines against AIDS. As new drugs and vaccines are researched, tested, and released, they are made available to those needing them. Unfortunately, these medications are only available in countries similar to the United States and people living in poor, undeveloped countries may not be able to obtain any medication for HIV or AIDS.

Other medications, called prophylactic medications are used to prevent the infected person from getting some of the worst opportunistic infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other diseases and infections.

Last Reviewed 2005

Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.

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