Research into AIDS

Ever since its discovery over 25 years ago, research into AIDS has continued to be a major concern for public health. Doctors and scientists are working constantly, trying to develop a vaccine or a cure to the disease which has become one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Alongside this research there are also attempts to develop medicines to prolong the life of those suffering from HIV infection and AIDS.

During the few years after AIDS first appeared, the theories regarding its cause and origin changed from one month to the next. First it was thought to thrive only in the gay community, although this was disproved fairly quickly as more and more cases of heterosexual people with AIDS appeared. Even the virus causing AIDS was the subject of fierce debate. To this day, it is still unclear what causes HIV and AIDS and where they came from.

One of the biggest factors hindering the development of a cure or vaccine for HIV and AIDS is the alarming rate of evolution. The HIV of today is not the same as it was 20 years ago, as it continues to evolve and protect itself from the treatments used against it.

HIV develops in such a way that there can be multiple strains of the virus in one person. For this reason a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs has been developed to tackle the virus. This research into AIDS found that using multiple antiretroviral drugs as opposed to just one, is much more effective for the patient and prolongs life expectancy considerably. Some strains of the virus in an individual may have been developed to have a resistance to a particular drug, in this case another drug would tackle the virus instead, and using this combination of drugs significantly reduces the rate at which the HIV builds up a resistance.