Fighting HIV

Recent news reports have highlighted research on a possible new strategy to fight HIV. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the most effective current method for fighting the virus, would be combined with chemotherapy to target the reservoir of virus that can not be reached by current drugs. The chemotherapy is necessary because HIV likes to hide in the cells of the immune system, which is one of the reasons why a person can have an undetectable viral load for years and then have an infection resurface. New drugs could target those infected cells and destroy the reservoir of virus that makes it so difficult to fight an HIV infection. Although such treatments will probably not be available for years, or even decades, the fact that scientists have found new ways of identifying the cells that are hiding the virus opens the door to novel treatment possibilities. It will be fascinating to see how the research proceeds.

• HIV 101
• The CDC Recommends Universal HIV Testing