A Step Closer to Curing HIV
After doing a research project on HIV and AIDS in my religion class I have been intrigued and appalled by the terrifying statistics of the amount of people in
America and the rest of the world suffering from HIV and the AIDS Pandemic. I cannot believe that will all the tecnology and cures in this world we still have not found one
to cure HIV. HIV is a virus that occurs in the immune system. You may have the virus for over six months and not feel the symptoms for a while. Over the course of time HIV turns
into a more severe disease (AIDS). The most common way HIV is spread is through sexual intercourse when coming into contact with an infected person's blood. It can also be spread tthrough pregnancy from an infected mother to a child. Another common way is through injection of needles and drugs. The scariest part of this disease is that it is killing millions of people and it has no cure.
When I came across this article that speaks about how hopes are being raised on an HIV immune boost I was very interested. There have been many tests being run on monkeys that are apparently successful. Scientists believe that this is a step towards finding a cure towards the awful diseases. However the drugs they have been using to test on the monkeys need multiple does of the antiviral drug.The monkeys have a similar disease which is equivalent to the human version of HIV called "simian immunodeficiency virus". Although millions of people with HIV cannot currently receive them, modern antiretroviral drugs have transformed the life expectancy of people with the infection.
Dr Rama Amara, who led the research, said: "It is important to note that this therapy was effective without antiretroviral drugs and in monkeys with severe AIDS."
This is a big step in today's research and we can only hope this new discovery will bring more effective information to conquer the road of curing HIV.
