HIV/AIDS – What are the treatments? How effective are they? Is there a cure coming soon?
by: Jorge Marín
It is said that as of 2020, there were around 37.6 million people around the Earth infected with HIV, this according to UNAIDS, The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. The fight against HIV/AIDS has been a long one, spanning decades since the first cases that were reported in the early 1980s. HIV, which stands for the human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. It belongs to the retrovirus family. If not treated properly, HIV can turn into AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. At this stage, the immune system of the infected person is so heavily compromised, that they become more susceptible to severe infections, which can then lead to the infected person’s death. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021)
HIV/AIDS can be dangerous, but treatments have come a long way in the last several decades. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NRTIs for short, are drugs that were made to impede the replication of HIV in the body. There are several NRTIs available as treatments for HIV/AIDS that have been approved by the Food & Drug Administration. Epivir, Ziagen, and Viread are examples of NRTIs available today. NRTIs are taken orally as tablets daily. (International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, 2021)
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NNRTIs, are also used in the treatment of HIV and can be combined with NRTIs to help diminish the viral load in the body of an infected person. It is an Antiretroviral HIV drug class and, as described by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care,” used to treat HIV as part of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Antiretrovirals interfere with the ability of a virus to multiply or reproduce. To treat HIV, NNRTIs work by blocking an enzyme HIV needs to make copies of itself.” Sustiva and Edurant are a few examples of NNRTIs that are available and are approved by the FDA, as part of antiretroviral therapy used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. (International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, 2021)
There are other treatments that are available for HIV/AIDS such as HIV fusion inhibitors, attachment inhibitors, and co-receptor antagonists, the latter being an antiretroviral therapy that binds to the outer surface of HIV and thus preventing it from binding with cells. All of this can really help a person with HIV live longer, relatively normal life spans.
Is there a cure in the foreseeable future? It is a question on many people’s minds. Fortunately, the road to a cure is not an impossible one. There is a chance of a functional cure, in which the HIV viral load is significantly reduced to an undetectable level but may not fully remove the virus. Some consider the antiretroviral therapy drugs described earlier as functional cures, considering how much they improve an infected person’s life span. Although many have come close over the years, there is still as of yet no fully functional cure, given that the virus always re-emerges in people who have tried the treatments. (Avert, 2021) Hopefully, the time will come when a functional cure may emerge with the capacity to suppress HIV infection. New breakthroughs keep coming, this hopeful dream may soon become a reality.
Avert. (2021, June 1). Is There a Cure for HIV and AIDS? Retrieved from Avert: https://www.avert.org/about-hiv-aids/cure
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, June 1). About HIV. Retrieved from CDC Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/whatishiv.html
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care. (2021, April N.D.). How NNRTIs work. Retrieved from IAPAC International Association of Providers of AIDS Care: https://www.iapac.org/fact-sheet/how-nnrtis-work/
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care. (2021, April N.D.). How NRTIs Work. Retrieved from IAPAC International Association of AIDS CAre: https://www.iapac.org/fact-sheet/how-nrtis-work/