Sociologist's AIDS Network

In some of the promising developments in additional than 20 years, scientists claim that drugs used to control HIV/AIDS in patients may be efficient in stopping the illness in the first place.

The medicine in query are tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine, or FTC (Emtriva), bought in combination as Truvada by Gilead Sciences Inc. Gilead is the California company finest recognized for inventing Tamiflu.

Earlier research has been aimed toward finding a vaccine in opposition to HIV/AIDS, with the intention of conditioning the immune system towards the disease. However these drugs work differently. They merely maintain the virus from reproducing, and have already been used successfuly by health care staff to forestall them from being infected by the virus carried by patients.

This approach to combating HIV/AIDS has been tempting researchers for a few years, however has only lately turn into feasible as preventative medication have been developed which can be secure for non-infected individuals to take. Earlier medication had unreasonable effects for uninfected persons.

That scenario modified when Tenofovir came in the marketplace in 2001. Tenofovir is powerful and protected, and it solely must be taken as soon as a day. It additionally doesn't work together with different medicines or birth control drugs, and manifests less drug resistance than other AIDS medications.

** Monkey research show thrilling outcomes

A serious examine by the CDC (Facilities for Disease Management and Prevention) in Atlanta, Georgia involved six macaques. The monkeys got a mixture of Tenofovir and FTC and then administered a lethal mixture of monkey and human AIDS viruses. They were given the viruses in rectal doses to simulate contact between gay men.

Each was given 14 weekly exposures of the virus, and not one of the monkeys became infected. In a management group which did not receive the drugs, all however one acquired the illness, usually after simply two exposures.

The scientists then stopped giving the medicine to the test group to see if the prevention was solely temporary. The results were equally impressive. None of the monkeys contracted the disease. "We're now four months following the animals with no drug, no virus. They're uninfected and healthy," reported a CDC researcher.

Now other analysis groups are pushing to have this drug mixture examined on humans. A $29 million CDC study of drug customers in Botswana will now be switched to this new drug combination.

Another research of four hundred heterosexual girls in Ghana by the Family Health Initiative, and funded by the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis, is studying the effects of tenofovir alone.

But several other studies have didn't materialize because studies of this nature instantly elevate suspicions that scientists are utilizing local people as guinea pigs. The fear is that they may deliberately expose the test subjects to the virus.

The price of tenofovir and Truvada additionally make testing difficult. In African nations condoms are now liberally donated by corporations, aid groups, UN businesses, and western governments. While the medication are comparatively cheap, the price remains an impediment.

However researchers have been reinvigorated by the beautiful results out of Atlanta, and new exams are going ahead in pockets of curiosity around the world.