Treatments

__**Common Treatments for HIV Infection.**__

There is currently no publicly available vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS(Robb, 2008). There are, however, treatment methods that have lead people to healthy sustainable lives. The first is a course of antiretroviral treatment administered immediately after exposure, referred to as post-exposure prophylaxis, it is believed to reduce the risk of infection if begun as quickly as possible (Fan et al. 2005). Second and most common is a method of treatment for those who are already infected, it is known as HAART. It is aggressive treatment regimens used to suppress HIV viral replication and the progression of HIV disease. The usual HAART regimen combines three or more different drugs such as two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and a protease inhibitor (PI), two NRTIs and a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) or other such combinations. These HAART regimens have proven to reduce the amount of active virus and in some cases can lower the number of active virus until it is undetectable by current blood testing techniques (Cichocki, 2009). Many HIV-infected individuals have experienced remarkable improvements in their general health from HAART treatment which has led to a large reduction in HIV-associated mortality in the developed world. Unfortunately HAART treatments do not fully cure the disease (Palella et al. 1998).
 * Cichocki, Mark, R.N. (2009). ** ** HAART - Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. About.com

Fan, H., Conner, R. F. and Villarreal, L. P. eds, ed (2005). AIDS : science and society (4th ed.). ** ** Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

 // Palella, F. J., Delaney, K. M., Moorman, A. C., Loveless, M. O., Fuhrer, J., Satten, G. A., Aschman, D. J. and Holmberg, S. D. (1998). //  **// Declining morbidity and mortality among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection **. **// ** // N. Engl. J. Med. // ** // 338 // ** // (13): 853–860. // ** // Robb ML (2008). ** Failure of the Merck HIV vaccine: an uncertain step forward **. // // Lancet // **// 372 //** // (9653): 1857–1858 //

**The video below summarizes the benefits of creating a patent pool for HIV treatments so that they may become more accessible and affordable for all people.** media type="youtube" key="Vj0dbFgjoh4" height="385" width="480"