AIDS HIV Drugs

The only routes left for transmission of the virus are the blood supply or an accidental exposure through blood to bloAcquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is an infectious disease that was first recognized in the late 20th century. Its impact on human illness and death is profound. The human immunodeficiency virus or HIV causes AIDS. AIDS is always fatal, even when therapy is provided. AIDS first came to the attention of the medical community when young gay men were afflicted with a mysterious cancer in the early 1980s. Initially the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) thought the cancer was specific to homosexual men and labeled it gay-related immune deficiency (GRID). In 1982, the disease was given its current name of AIDS. In 1993 researchers identified HIV as being the causative agent for AIDS. Until this time HIV had been contained in animals, but within two decades millions of people would be dead of the disease with tens of millions more infected with the deadly virus:

Within the past 50 to 100 years, HIV went from being maintained primarily, if not exclusively, in sooty mangebeys (HIV-2) and chimpanzees (HIV-1) to being the etiologic agent of a worldwide pandemic. AIDS was not recognized as a specific disease until 1980, and HIV was not identified as the etiological agent until 1983. Nevertheless, an estimated 16 million persons have died from AIDS worldwide with 50 million currently infected with AIDS.

The outbreak of AIDS and infections of HIV have dropped significantly in

lso has greatly increased the expense and complexity of providing optimal antiretroviral therapy" (Zepf, 2001, 1443). One problem with such drugs is that HIV can readily adapt and develop resistance to the most powerful and current antiviral agents. Further, the cost of such medications make them inaccessible to many individuals especially those in impoverished nations. Adding to the inaccessibility of such drugs is the fact that many pharmaceutical companies who own the patents on such drugs have high licensing and royalty fees. Therefore, even though such powerful new drugs have been shown to work, they are cost-prohibitive for many especially those in hardest hit regions. Recently GalxoSmithKline (GSK) waived rights to its royalties and granted a drug license to generics company Aspen in South Africa (Freeman, 2001, 12). The company has granted a temporary license to the South Africa company for the manufacture of zidovudine (Retrovir-AZT), lamivudine (Epivir-3TC) and Combivir (Freeman, 2001, 12). Thus, we can see that while these drugs have been very effective, their cost is prohibitive and access to them is limited. Further, HIV is very capable of evolving to a form that is resistant to the most powerful antiretrov