Treatment and Cure

Optimizing treatment and exploring the potential for a cure are vital to our efforts to bring an end to the suffering caused by HIV/AIDS.
One of the greatest successes in HIV/AIDS research so far has been the development of treatments that have lengthened the lives of people living with HIV. Progress made since the earliest days of antiretroviral therapy, when AZT extended lives by only a couple of months, means that today a patient can expect to survive for thirteen additional years on average, thanks to sophisticated highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Yet the benefits of HAART often come at the cost of serious side effects and toxicities that can limit the utility of the very drugs designed to improve lives. These range from inconvenient and uncomfortable symptoms to serious or even life-threatening conditions such as increased cholesterol, increased risk of heart attack and liver failure, and a diabetes-like syndrome called insulin resistance.
In addition, growing numbers of patients on treatment, as well as those newly infected with the virus, harbor strains of HIV that are resistant to one, two, or even three classes of drug treatment. Side effects such as neuropathy, nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, and fever lead to reduced adherence to therapy and thereby increase the rate at which drug resistance appears in the patient and is transmitted to others.
While today’s treatments can significantly improve both the length and quality of life for people with HIV/AIDS, they do not represent a cure. Once started, therapy is a lifelong commitment. A cure, if possible, would represent a more sustainable option than costly, complicated, and potentially toxic treatment regimens.