Approaches in HIV Treatment Briefly Explained

Approaches in HIV Treatment Briefly Explained

Scientists have yet to find a cure for HIV and AIDS, but there’s good news, too! Several treatments are available to control the effects of the human immunodeficiency virus.

Such therapies include monotherapy and combination therapy, for which Atripla is beneficial in this regard. As a result, people infected with the virus can live relatively healthy and long lives.

Prompt and Proper Treatment Is a Must

Before we discuss the approaches to HIV treatment, we want to point out the importance of seeking prompt and proper treatment after your diagnosis. Then, your doctor will recommend a personalized treatment plan to manage your HIV.

When in place and followed to the letter, your plan will achieve two objectives:

  • Prevent the virus from attacking and damaging your immune system; and
  • Reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to your sexual partners

Take note that the operative term here is “reduce the risk,” so precautions to prevent infecting them are necessary. Ask your doctor about these precautions, which may include using condoms.

Functional and Sterilizing Cures

Scientists are consistently looking for possible cures for the scourge of the 20th century, so there’s always hope. Currently, there are two types of treatments under exploration, namely:

  • Functional cures suppress the virus’s quantity in the body, so tests will not detect or cause the characteristic symptoms. However, there’s still debate about whether current antiretroviral treatments are functional cures. A few patients, such as the Mississippi Baby, temporarily appear to get rid of the infection; however, their diseases reappear sometime later.
  • Sterilizing cures intend to remove all traces of the virus from the body. As a result, even hidden reservoirs cannot harbor it anymore. Timothy Brown, the so-called Berlin Patient, is the only documented case of the possibility of an effective sterilizing cure.

But his treatment isn’t recommended for several reasons. First, he received a bone marrow transplant. His donor was a person with a documented natural genetic resistance against the virus.

The treatment cured him of his HIV, but scientists have yet to understand why his case has given scientists more ideas about a possible cure.

The treatment plan will also depend on the type of HIV in an affected person. There are two known types – HIV-1 and HIV-2 – with each virus very different.

  • HIV-1 is the most common, with around a 95% infection rate due to its highly infectious properties.
  • HIV-2 is relatively uncommon, with its highest concentration in West Africa and less virulent and aggressive (i.e., slower progression).

Tests usually determine which one is present in a potential patient’s system.