Finding suggests why drugs can’t wipe out virus

The latest AIDS research suggests current treatments won't be able to eradicate the virus

By Robert Bazell NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT

BARCELONA, Spain, July 8 — Dr. Howard Grossman, an AIDS specialist in New York, used to have two or three of his patients die every week. Not any more, thanks to drugs called anti-retrovirals that keep the virus in check.

"ONE PATIENT this year. And that is a dramatic difference," Grossman said.

Not long ago, some scientists thought the drugs might eliminate HIV altogether — a cure. But findings presented at the International AIDS Meeting in Barcelona on Monday show that the virus hides in part of the immune system the drugs simply can’t reach.

Dr. Robert Siliciano, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, reported that HIV can remain dormant in a type of immune cell called CD4+ T cells even when blood levels of the virus are undetectable. He said this would make it difficult to completely wipe out the virus

"I think what we know now is that with anti-retroviral drugs, although we can control the infection, we can never cure it," he said.

SIDE EFFECTS

That means patients must take the drugs for life — but horrible side effects can make that very difficult.
Elaine Bryant’s face has changed dramatically because the drugs destroy the fat beneath the skin — and that is not all.
"Major migraines, and weight loss, and the nausea, and the constant diarrhea," she said.
Experts say the latest results point to the continuing importance of prevention effort — in the United States and in places like Southern Africa, where life expectancy in some countries is projected to drop to 30 within a decade. Without AIDS, the average life expectancy there would have been closer to 70.

PREVENTION EFFORTS

Dr. Helene Gayle heads the Gates Foundation AIDS program, which has pledged $500 million to prevention efforts as a first step.

"If we could invest $4.8 billion over the next eight to 10 years, we could reduce the number of new infections by 29 million. That’s amazing. We need to do it," Gayle said.

And the U.N.’s AIDS program says $9 billion now could provide the prevention and treatments needed to stem the worst plague in human history.

Robert Bazell is Chief Science Correspondent for NBC News.