As the AIDS pandemic continues to escalate with more than 50,000 new infections reported each year, over the last fifteen years, there is a greater need than ever for some sort of medical solution. Statistics show that nearly 1.2 million Americans live with HIV today and unless treated in time, these will develop into full-blown cases of AIDS. This is not even taking into consideration the 240,000 estimated cases of people who may be carriers of HIV but are as yet unaware of it. Until recently, the quest for a possible cure had reached a stalemate and the only resort for patients of HIV and AIDS was a cocktail of drugs that increased their life expectancy but did nothing to kill the virus. However, as of July 2012, the Food and Drug Administration has approved for the first time ever a drug that may successfully reduce the risk of an HIV infection. Gilead Science’s pill – Truvada has been approved by the FDA to be used as a preventive measure by people who fall under the high-risk category of acquiring an HIV infection. These include sex workers, intravenous drug users, promiscuous couples with multiple partners, gay and bisexual men who participate in unprotected sexual activities and people with partners who are infected with HIV. Many people consider this type of antiviral drug a milestone in the long-standing battle against AIDS. Health advocates and experts believe that this drug could help slow down the spread of the disease and if used as a precautionary medication may even help prevent the disease.
While Truvada has been marketed by Gilead Sciences as a treatment for HIV since 2004, the recent FDA approval can significantly increase its prescription to patients (both already infected and those who are not). In a recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, uninfected partners who took Truvada daily showed a 75 percent protection rate. The study also showed a 42 percent protection rate in gay and bisexual men who used Truvada as a preventive measure against the infection along with the practice of safe sex. As of now, Truvada is only available in the US with the cost of the daily pill working out to nearly $14,000 a year. While this may seem exorbitant, the price is still a lot cheaper than the lifetime cost of treatments after infection. Inspite of the positive feedback regarding the FDA approval, a large majority of the HIV community including health groups and experts insist that the FDA reject its latest approval as they feel it could give people a false sense of security and in fact lead to an increase in unprotected sex and infection rates.
In other path breaking news regarding the treatment of AIDS, The scientific and medical community is abuzz about the “Berlin patient,” the world’s only person who has been completely cured of HIV. Otherwise known as Timothy Brown, the forty-year old American was cured of an HIV infection after a successful bone-marrow transplant to treat his leukemia. The transplant was performed in Germany and the removal of the HIV infection can be traced back to the HIV-resistance of the bone marrow of the transplant donor. This HIV-resistance may have been caused by a genetic mutation and further research into this possibility has injected new momentum and hope into the field of AIDS research and treatment. While doctors and surgeons stop short of considering bone marrow transplants as a means to treat HIV, experts all agree that if one person has been cured, it indicates that a cure IS possible and scientists are now working on a number of different approaches to fight AIDS that include vaccines and gene therapy.
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