AIDS History And Treatment

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rather than eliminating the virus entirely. The three most common forms of treatment now are azidothymidine (AZT), protease inhibitors, and multidrug therapies. These drugs have been successful in prolonging patients' lives because they interfere with the duplication of HIV within the body. The reason that they don't destroy the virus is because of the virus's unique ability to mutate into different strains and become resistant to these drugs. However, with the success of the current treatments of AZT, protease inhibitors, and multidrug therapy, as well as the prospect of future treatments such as genetic therapy and vaccines, it appears that a cure may be discovered in the near future, thus ending the dominion of AIDS throughout the world.
When trying to combat the HIV virus, it is important for scientists to understand the precise series of steps in which the virus disables the immune system. By understanding these steps, it allows the scientists to create different therapies ...

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be synthesized, and the virus reproduction process is halted. Therefore, AZT is categorized as a reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RT inhibitor). Another common RI is known as 3TC (Encarta). AZT has shown to be extremely effective in reducing HIV transmission from pregnant women to their babies. Besides this, however, several studies indicate that AZT does not work very well on its own. This prompted the development of another form of treatment known as protease inhibitors.
The second form of treatment is known as protease inhibitors. Protease inhibitors were developed in 1995 as a way to disrupt the assembly of the HIV viruses in the cell, thus hindering the new virus stage. ...

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