hiv (Page 2)

Scientists have discovered a gene that provides a naturaldefense against the virus responsible for Aids. The gene,CEM15, stops HIV if it’s slightly modified. Normally, HIVovercomes CEM15 by producing a protein called Vif thatsuppresses its activity. If the HIV virus can be altered sothat it does not contain Vif, the CEM15 gene will interferewith its life cycle. It won’t get rid of the old HIV, but itwill stop it from progressing, since any new HIV particleswill not be infectious.
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Blood-sucking flies may be to blame for the HIV epidemic being unleashed on humans, according to Gerhard Brandner of the University of Freiburg in Germany. AIDS researchers believe the HIV virus jumped species from chimpanzees to humans at some point in the first half of the 20th century, but they don?t know how it happened.

Some researchers think humans were first exposed when simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the monkey version of HIV, got into open wounds of game hunters in west or central Africa. However, German scientists think horse flies may be responsible for HIV invading humans.
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Cocaine may not only be associated with HIV infections because it causes people to act recklessly and have unsafe sex?it may also help the HIV virus spread faster through the body, killing off more immune cells and reproducing 200 times faster than usual.

?Cocaine not only influences risky behaviors, it also has a direct and profound effect on the AIDS virus,? says Dr. Gayle Baldwin, an AIDS researcher at UCLA. The spread of the HIV virus and its effects on immune cells known as CD4 T-cells are directly related to how sick a person becomes with HIV infection.
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In poor African countries, patients with HIV often cannot afford their medicines, even when they are heavily discounted in cost. Africa is home to 26.5 million of the 37 million people in the world living with HIV. Scientists fear the result may be new superstrains of HIV that are resistant to the drugs.

This same process has happened with tuberculosis. We now have drugs that cure TB, but if a patient does not take the full course of the drugs, he can become reinfected with a super form of the disease that is drug-resistant. This new TB superbug can then be passed on to others.
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