Retroviruses and Novel Drugs

Biography

Biography: Anozie L

Abstract

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, more than 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died due to complications to HIV. Intestinal parasites are the most troublesome for AIDS patients, and are widespread in many regions of the world where HIV/AIDS is also prevalent. Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions where intestinal parasitic infections are deep-rooted and the largest burden of AIDS cases exist. It is at the core of this research not only to address the social and behavioral aspect of the illness but the medical and other aspects of the disease as well. The aim is to address the issue of prevalence with the view that HIV and AIDS infection is not only a medical problem but a human problem which affects a person in all aspects of human existence. This is non-matched case-control study that comprise five hundred (500) participants: four hundred (400) HIV positive patients and one hundred (100) HIV negative patients as control group. The study participants are HIV positive patients attending HIV clinics at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, Mthatha as well as rural based participants, since we are also looking at environmental factors that influence the biologic effect on the HIV transmission. Intestinal parasites are believed to exert immunosuppression of the host by inducing permanent activation of the helper T-cells which may favor retroviral replications. This preliminary results point to the fact that, the existence of interaction between HIV and parasitic infections in co-infected individuals shows that parasitic infections, particularly helminths cause chronic immune activation, in addition to tilting the immune response toward T helper-2 immune responses. So much efforts have been made to control and eradicate the scourge of HIV/AIDS globally. Scientists suspect that the AIDS virus usually cannot cause the disease by itself, but other factors usually help it to infect. These “Cofactors” do not cause AIDS, but make it more likely that exposure to the virus will develop into the disease. In the face of these challenges, and even with the increased resources, global AIDS policy is failing to stem the epidemic. The failure to prevent HIV is probably because the program ignores the fundamental causes of the epidemic. The program attempts to intervene at the last minute with limitations to socio-psychological aspect such as behavioural change, ignoring the declining economies, educational quality, aggravated health crisis, and direct biologic effects of unsanitary conditions on the vulnerability of individuals and society to HIV. Therefore, there is need for holistic approach which includes but not limited to fundamental causes of the epidemic