You may know of AIDS as the condition that claims the highest number of lives every year, throughout the world. AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which is caused in humans by the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The disease can severely compromise the human bodies’ immune system, thereby leaving it ineffective to fight against other diseases, infections or tumors. Tests for identifying the presence of HIV are numerous, and vary in terms of expense and sensitivity, accuracy.
As of this juncture, there still is no cure for HIV or AIDS. The only way for you to prevent the disease is to avoid exposing yourself to the virus. The ways to prevent exposure to HIV include avoiding the mixing of bodily fluids with an infected person, which can occur in plenty of ways (through the exchange of semen, or something as simple as sharing a razor blade or a hypodermic needle).
However, if a person has been affected, there are some methods of treatment that can slow the progress of the virus down.
Antiviral Therapy
Antiviral therapy is the current method of treatment used in most places. This type of treatment is known as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy or HAART in short. It should be known that HAART usually involves a cocktail of drugs (all of which belong to various classes of antiretroviral chemicals). Also, HAART dosages vary depending on the patient’s age. This is mainly because the HIV disease spreads much faster in children than in adults. You’ll notice that HAART treatments for younger people are much more aggressive in nature.
The antiretroviral medications used for HAART have been classified by the US Food and Drug Administration into four main categories:
- Non Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors or NNRTIs, which stop the action of reverse transcriptase, which is a vital protein for HIV reproduction.
- Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors or NRTIs, other agents that try to stop the replication of HIV. These have structures that are similar to the building blocks of HIV, and try to confuse the virus into using these instead of the actual virus’ blocks. This effectively slows down replication.
- Protease Inhibitors or PIs, which disable an important protein that HIV needs to replicate.
- Fusion Inhibitors, which are a modern method of treatment that can stop the entry of HIV into other cells.
There is no ideal combination of these drugs though – the correct combination is a matter best decided by any doctor. Another important issue here is pregnancy. If the infected person already is, or is planning to become pregnant, there are some more conditions to be considered.
This is because HIV can be transmitted from the mother to a child during the early stages of pregnancy itself. It is believed that HAART can increase a HIV infected person’s life by 4 to 12 years. But sometimes HAART delivers less than desirable results, and this is mainly attributed to the side effects of the medication, or a patient’s intolerance to the medication.
This treatment, however, is not without its own negative aspects. The side effects of HAART include increased vulnerability to cardiac risks, raised susceptibility to defects during child birth, diarrhea, resistance to insulin, the loss of fat from areas on the body (called lipodystrophy) and abnormal levels of fat and cholesterol in a person’s bloodstream (called dyslipidemia).
Other Methods
Although there are a wide range of drugs available to slow down the effects of AIDS, the best thing to do is to prevent contracting it. This is by far the easier method, and it just involves living an extremely clean lifestyle. Abstaining from unprotected sex, using fresh razor blades and not sharing needles can significantly reduce one’s risk of infection.
