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By Paula Cevaal  To quote the world renowned HIV treatment specialist and researcher Prof. Paul Volberding: “We’ve made a lot of progress. But I don’t talk to any patient who wouldn’t rather be cured than take one pill once a day. So we still have lots of work to do.”1 With the year 2020 fast approaching, we are close to the 50-year mark since HIV was first described. Several big institutions and organizations have announced their goals for an HIV cure to be de...

By Paula Cevaal  Since its emergence in the ‘80s, only one person in the world has ever been cured of HIV. Just over ten years ago, Timothy Ray Brown (often referred to as ‘The Berlin Patient’) received a stem cell transplant of a healthy donor that was naturally resistant to HIV1. Ever since, Timothy has been an inspiration to scientists as well as other people living with HIV, however it has proven extremely difficult and risky to repeat his procedure. The two upcoming a...

By Jared Stern   Retroviruses (Retroviridae) are a family of viruses first discovered at the start of the 20th century1, even though they have existed for nearly half a billion years2. These viruses are all enveloped. This means they are surrounded by a lipid layer that they acquire from the host cell when new viral particles bud off from the cell3. For more information on the build of these viruses read our earlier article on the life cycle of HIV. Retroviridae are biologically unique...

By Lucca Munnik and Paula Cevaal  Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious bacterial disease, continues to be the leading cause of death amongst people living with HIV (PLHIV). Post-mortem observations have shown a prevalence of TB in HIV-positive bodies of 40%1, thus proving the high rate of co-infection of HIV and TB. TB was discussed in the article “Opportunistic Infections”, which provided a brief description of the disease itself and explained that PLHIV that have a suppressed immu...

By Marissa van Hamersveld  ImmunosuppressionAs discussed before in our article What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?, people with severe suppression of the immune system with CD4 count below 200 cells/ml, are considered to have progressed to AIDS. These people are susceptible to opportunistic infections, which are infections that are more frequent or more severe because of suppression of the immune system. They rarely occur in people with higher CD4 counts or people without HIV or ot...

By Jared Stern  Recently, there has been a paradigm shift in understanding that having an undetectable viral load means a person living with HIV cannot transmit HIV. This has been strongly promoted as “Undetectable=Untransmittable” or “U=U”, for short1, 2, 3, 4. It is also termed “Treatment as Prevention” (TasP) since it is recognised as a viable method to prevent further transmissions and help in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since the turn of the centur...

By Lizzie van Dorp  Similar to PrEP, Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is antiretroviral medication used to reduce the possible transmission of HIV to a seronegative person. The difference, however, is that the therapy is given after possible infection. PEP must be started as soon as possible within first 72 hours after potential exposure. The full course of the 28-day treatment should be completed then the risk of transmission can be reduced by 80%. 1, 2, 3PEP and the target populationAny se...

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to reduce transmission of HIV in HIV negative people who are at substantial risk of HIV. A combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil (FTC-TDF) has been shown to effectively reduce HIV infections in heterosexual men and women, men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who inject drugs (PWID)1,2,3,4,5. This is probably also the case for transgender people, but because they are underrepresented in clinical trials,...

By Lizzie van Dorp  The previous blog ‘Treatment of HIV/AIDS’ already outlined the types of antiretroviral medications available and briefly mentioned the possible risks of ART. The WHO recommends commencement of antiretroviral therapy for all seropositive individuals regardless of CD4 count and viral load. Chances of progression to AIDS and forward transmission diminish with antiretroviral therapy, while quality of life and life expectancy increases.1,2 Antiretroviral treatment...

By Tessa Lawson Tattersall  Presently, HIV has neither a cure nor a vaccine. However, highly effective treatment regimens can allow for long and healthy lives of people who have been diagnosed as HIV positive in locations where treatment is available and accessible1.Antiretroviral TherapyCurrently, treatment of HIV is in the form of antiretroviral therapy (ART), which uses a combination of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that suppress the viral replication of HIV. ART allows the immune system to...