Significant recent advances in HIV have the potential to favorably impact our HIV prevention efforts in the future; from simpler, very effective and safer medications to the use of anti-HIV medications to prevent new infections.  And let’s not forget about “The Berlin Patient”, Timothy Ray Brown, the first person ever cured from HIV infection.

 

As we march forward in our fight against HIV, we continue to discover new preventive concepts that could be very effective.  Taking these ideas and turning them into practical interventions in the real world continues to be a challenge.

Only one lucky person has had that opportunity, but it was not an easy process and it is one that is unlikely to be adopted to cure other HIV infected people outside the setting of a clinical study.  So the answer is “yes”, given the precedent established by that single case. But the route to get to that cure, and to incorporate what we have learned from that case into useful treatment for the community at large will take many years, if not decades.  While we remain optimistic about the future, the reality in the short term remains the same: patients with HIV infection will need to continue taking medications.  Even if a cure is eventually discovered, the likelihood is that it will be prohibitively expensive and inaccessible for the people that need it the most, the underserved, uninsured individuals, and for those people in the areas around the world in which the epidemic is running rampant, in poor developing countries.

It is nearly impossible to read a magazine, newspaper, watch TV or do just about any public activity without being in one way or another bombarded with a health-related message.  We hear about wellness, gracious aging, yoga, nutrition, herbs, weight loss, and sleep. And how many times do we question ourselves: Maybe I shouldn’t supersize that Big-Mac order? Maybe I’ll have just one martini for the night? Or, maybe I should make my cigarette pack last me two days!

Back in the late eighties a new virus was found to cause liver problems after blood transfusions. The virus was genetically different from existing Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B viruses and named “non A non B hepatitis.”  This new virus was later named Hepatitis C. As of today it is estimated that 4.5 million  Americans and 200 million people worldwide are infected with the Hepatitis C virus, making it one of the greatest public threats of the century. Hepatitis C can become a very serious health condition and is already a “not so hidden epidemic.”  Without rapid intervention to contain the spread of the disease, the death rate for Hepatitis C will sooner or later surpass the HIV/AIDS death rate.