Disease by Disease: AIDS, Infectious Diseases

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Disease by Disease: AIDS, Infectious Diseases

Wall Street Journal--Health & Medicine (10/18/99) P. R4
Winslow, Ron; Langreth, Robert; Waldholz, Michael

Medical advances are helping to improve the outlook for many patients, leading to possible changes in treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of leading diseases. Combination drug therapy, for example, has resulted in a significant reduction in the AIDS mortality rate. The drugs, however, do not appear to have the ability to completely eliminate HIV from the body--a situation that has frustrated many researchers. Two other problematic areas are the price of the HIV therapies and the emergence of drug-resistant HIV strains. Drug resistance is also an issue for other diseases, including pneumonia and skin and blood infections. Increasing use of potent new drugs has helped bacteria mutate into never-before-seen forms. One way researchers are trying to fight drug resistance involves discovering the genetic code of diseases, using their structure to find new methods of attacking microbes. In recent years, scientists have deciphered the genetic codes of the germs that cause syphilis, malaria, and tuberculosis.

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