99e热国产最新地址获取,成人一a毛片免费视频,一级a爱看片免费观看,最近最新中文字幕大全免费一

 
 
 

Why HIV Cure is Still Needed

VOA 2015-07-23 11:55

分享到

 

Why HIV Cure is Still Needed

Get Flash Player

With the success of antiretroviral drugs in treating HIV/AIDS, many infected people are able to lead more normal lives. But treatment is not a cure. A renewed call for a cure was made at the International AIDS Society Conference on Pathogenesis, Prevention and Treatment in Vancouver, Canada.

Nicholas Chomont focuses much of his research on finding where the AIDS virus hides in the body. The University of Montreal associate microbiology professor said even without a cure things are much better today than they used to be.

“Since the isolation of HIV in 1983, we have better weapons to fight HIV infection. And we have better drugs, more drugs. And if you compare the efficacy of these drugs in the pre-antiretroviral therapy era to now, clearly they show higher potency and reduced toxicity. And more importantly, the number of pills that people living with HIV have to take per day has been considerably reduced. And this is clearly a great scientific success.”

He said infected people are living longer and healthier lives.

“If you look at the expected survival of a 20 year old person living with HIV in a high income country between 1995 and now, you would see this dramatic increase in the number of years people can expect to live with HIV drugs. And this life expectancy is actually quite close to one you would see in the uninfected populations,” he said.

Chomont asked with such success why is a cure needed?

“Well, I think there are different answers to that question. So, first, antiretroviral therapy does not eradicate the virus. It greatly reduces the amount of virus in the body, but the virus is still there. Because the virus is still there other issues either appear or persist,” he said.

One of those issues is not a medical one.

“The first one,” he said, “is that the criminalization and the stigmatization of people living with HIV still remain in 2015 in most of the countries in the world. People living with HIV face many issues -- criminalization, stigmatization in their family and at work. For that first reason a cure for HIV is something that we all want to develop.”

Next, while, ART, or antiretroviral therapy, is a huge success, health officials said millions who need it still cannot get it.

Chomont said, “The third reason why we need to do better than ART is that those treatments are actually quite toxic. And, as you know, these drugs have to be administered indefinitely for your lifetime. And we know that they may induce some side effects. More importantly we don’t know what are the long term effects of these drugs for more than 20 years. So, if you need a fourth reason for why we need a cure, I’m going to give you one more. And this is money.”

Chomont uses Canada, as an example, saying, “HIV generates enormous costs in terms of human suffering, job loss and the financial burden on the health care system.” And people who interrupt their drug treatment, for whatever reason, see HIV make a strong comeback.

A cure, he said, would eliminate these problems. But a cure means finding where HIV hides and eliminating it. It’s known that reservoirs can be found in the brain, lymph nodes, the gut and genital tract. Some reservoirs are active, while others are latent or silent, waiting for the opportunity to become active.

They can also hide at the cellular level, especially in what are called memory cells. These white blood cells are part of the immune system. They either directly attack bacteria or viruses or release antibodies.

He said the three main barriers to a cure are HIV-persistent tissues -- latent reservoirs of infected cells that are indistinguishable from uninfected cells -- and diverse types of latent reservoirs.

“There are two main types of cure that I [have] proposed. The first one is the sterilizing cure. This is the ideal model in which you would eradicate all trace of virus from the body. The second type of cure, which is probably more realistic, is what we call, the functional cure. And in that case you would probably also try to reduce the size of the reservoir significantly and then boost the immune system so it can control some events of activation from the latent reservoir.”

Professor Chomont said when antiretroviral therapy is administered soon after infection it can dramatically reduce reservoirs of infected cells. But for the majority of infected people who do not receive the drugs early, new ART strategies are being developed.

One is called the “shock and kill” approach. This would, in a sense, wake-up dormant or latent HIV and cause it to attack cells. But in doing so, it becomes susceptible to antiretroviral drugs. At the same time, the strategy must include a way to boost the immune system so it too can attack the virus.

Until a cure is found ART remains the main weapon against HIV, with new studies showing the earlier it’s given the better. Research also continues on an HIV vaccine. Neither a vaccine nor a cure is expected soon.

來源:VOA

編輯:劉明

上一篇 : Backup Motor May Save Pilots’ Lives
下一篇 :

 

分享到

中國日報網英語點津版權說明:凡注明來源為“中國日報網英語點津:XXX(署名)”的原創作品,除與中國日報網簽署英語點津內容授權協議的網站外,其他任何網站或單位未經允許不得非法盜鏈、轉載和使用,違者必究。如需使用,請與010-84883561聯系;凡本網注明“來源:XXX(非英語點津)”的作品,均轉載自其它媒體,目的在于傳播更多信息,其他媒體如需轉載,請與稿件來源方聯系,如產生任何問題與本網無關;本網所發布的歌曲、電影片段,版權歸原作者所有,僅供學習與研究,如果侵權,請提供版權證明,以便盡快刪除。

中國日報網雙語新聞

掃描左側二維碼

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我們這兒都有!

中國日報雙語手機報

點擊左側圖標查看訂閱方式

中國首份雙語手機報
學英語看資訊一個都不能少!

關注和訂閱

本文相關閱讀
人氣排行
熱搜詞
 
 
精華欄目
 

閱讀

詞匯

視聽

翻譯

口語

合作

 

關于我們 | 聯系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版權聲明:本網站所刊登的中國日報網英語點津內容,版權屬中國日報網所有,未經協議授權,禁止下載使用。 歡迎愿意與本網站合作的單位或個人與我們聯系。

電話:8610-84883645

傳真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn