• Question: Do you think there will ever be a cure for HIV/AIDs?

    Asked by lewisjohnson to Duncan, Kiran, Paul, Sarah, Sharon on 20 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Duncan Murdock

      Duncan Murdock answered on 20 Mar 2010:

      I hope so, it’s the bigger killer in the world. One of the problems with finding a cure for HIV is that it attacks the immune system directly and that doesn’t leave much for any kind of treatments to work with. However, treatment for the symptoms is improving, and our understanding of the virus is getting better with pioneering work on it’s genetic code. I think ultimately this will lead to a cure, but it may be a long way off. In the meantime, the best way to stop AIDs is to prevent the spread of HIV, and that can only come from better education.

    • Photo: Sarah Mount

      Sarah Mount answered on 20 Mar 2010:

      I certainly hope so, apparently some people have been infected with HIV and have not developed AIDS. So, perhaps if biologists can understand that then it might be possible to invent a cure or vaccine or better treatment or something else. However, I’m not a biologist, so I don’t really know much about this area. Some of the other Lithium Zone scientists will hopefully be able to give you a better answer!

    • Photo: Paul Stevenson

      Paul Stevenson answered on 20 Mar 2010:

      Yes, one day. I don’t know how soon, but scientists don’t like things like disease to beat them – they usually find cures in the end 🙂

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 21 Mar 2010:

      I think that HIV/AIDS research has really come on over the years and the treatments that are available now means people can live a long and relatively normal life. With regard to a cure, I am sure full cure will probably be developed in time. As HIV is a complicated disease, it is going to be tricky to find a cure, but there are a lot of people working on it! I think that the biggest problem with treatments for HIV/AIDS is that underdeveloped countries, like Africa, who have a large number of sufferers, do not have the money to get all the top treatments so hopefully cheaper treatments will be found to help all people world-wide, this along with better education will hopefully eradicate this disease from the world.

    • Photo: Kiran Meekings

      Kiran Meekings answered on 21 Mar 2010:

      Hi Lewis – there’s already some amazing treatments to prevent AIDS (the virus is called HIV, the disease it causes is caused AIDS). If you catch HIV now and have antiretroviral therapy, you are likely to live as long as if you didn’t have the virus – and you’re unlikely to get AIDS. However, that’s not the same as a complete cure which is getting rid of the virus completely. I think a cure is unlikely because the virus lays dormant in your cells and isn’t detectable most of the time – you can’t get rid of those viruses as your body doesn’t know they’re there. To get rid of all the virus, you need to wake all the viruses up and kill them and that’s very tricky…. Drug companies are trying to do it though and maybe it’ll be possible in 10 years (at the earliest…)

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