Video / Articles by Patrick Dixon - 24 million requests in year - 10 million visitors - Conference Speech/Event?
AIDS - HIV Protease inhibitors
promise new hope
AIDS prevention works - we can stop the spread of HIV - lessons from Uganda - Video
Comment by Dr Patrick Dixon to audience in South Africa about how corporations can help stop AIDS. HIV prevention can produce huge falls in infection rates in teenagers
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HIV protease inhibitors offer new hope of a combined
approach to HIV infection. Results in some cases have been spectacular
with undetectable levels of HIV achieved for long periods. This
has raised talk of perhaps even being able to eradicate HIV altogether,
based on the fact that many infected cells have a limited life-span.
By preventing viral replication one could in theory reach a situation
where all infected cells had died.
In
the past drugs like AZT have been used to block the enzyme reverse
transcriptase which HIV uses to convert viral genes into DNA messages
inside the nucleus of white cells. This is only partially effective,
even with combination therapy using several reverse transcriptase
inhibitors, and resistance is common. The new approach blocks
HIV protease, used by the virus in assembling virus particles
from building blocks made inside infected cells. When combined
with AZT one study found that levels of HIV fell a hundredfold.
However resistance to HIV protease inhibitors can develop rapidly
for reasons that are uncertain, but may be linked in some cases
to gaps in taking the correct medication.
While this news is encouraging, we are still nowhere
near a cure and the cost of the combined treatment is huge - perhaps
£10,000 - £20,000 a year per person, for life. Thus like AZT,
this new step even if it works is likely to be science fiction
for those in developing countries. In places like Uganda the total
health spend per person per year is around £2 and a doctor can
earn as little as £25 a month. Even in countries like the US and
the UK, governments are reeling at the prospect of a further £10,000
per person per year, for many years. Health budgets will feel
the strain if as is expected by some experts, HIV protease inhibitors
become widely accepted. However if the drugs only need to be taken
for two years or three, the costs begin to compare favourable
with the costs of hospitalisation and community care. In the meantime...
time is running out for millions.
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Video / Articles by Patrick Dixon - 24 million requests in year - 10 million visitors - Conference Speech/Event? 
In
the past drugs like AZT have been used to block the enzyme reverse
transcriptase which HIV uses to convert viral 
