HIV experts join forces

– Some 6 000 HIV experts gather in Paris from Sunday to report advances in AIDS science as fading hopes of finding a cure push research into new fields.

In their 36-year battle, researchers have always come up short against the virus’ guerrilla tactics – hiding out in human cells and playing dead only to reemerge and attack as soon as treatment is stopped.

Today’s research is about finding ways to keep the virus dormant with as few drugs and side-effects as possible.

And, of course, better ways to prevent infection in the first place.

“Eradicating the virus from someone, where you completely get rid of every single viral particle, is very difficult, if not impossible,” said AIDS expert Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) – a branch of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“So what we’re focusing more on is called an ART-free remission,” he said – using the acronym for anti-retroviral therapy.

The new buzzword is “functional cure”.

Unlike a traditional cure, where the virus is eradicated, the patient would still have HIV in their system.

But the virus would be so weakened that it cannot replicate, or spread to sexual partners, for a prolonged period of time – researchers hope permanently – without the need for daily drugs.

Though much improved since their revolutionary arrival in the 1990s, anti-retrovirals have side-effects which can include diarrhoea, skin rashes, nausea, insomnia and headaches.

And providing a lifelong supply to millions of people is a costly affair.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends ART for every one of the 36.7 million people living with HIV today. By 2016, some 19.5 million were getting it, according to UNAIDS.

The cost of treatment in poor countries, ranges from $85 (R1 100) per person per year, to over $1 200 (R15 500) in cases where the first line of available drugs fail to work.

Worried specialists say the need to switch treatment is now more common as the virus becomes resistant to first-choice medication. – AFP