AEGiS-BALA: FROM THE 5TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RETROVIRUSES Global AIDS: A "Chronic and Permanent Infection"

FROM THE 5TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RETROVIRUSES Global AIDS: A "Chronic and Permanent Infection"

Being Alive, Los Angeles; March 1998
Chris Griffin

On the first day of the Conference, Dr. W. Gary Tarpley of Pharmacia and Upjohn gave a presentation about the complexities of developing new antiretroviral drugs and novel strategies for fighting AIDS. His opening remarks are worth repeating here.

What I find particularly sobering about the AIDS epidemic today is not just the global magnitude of the problems, with millions of patients infected worldwide, but the realization that in the last decade, despite the world's best effort to stop the spread of this virus, it has now established itself in every major world population, and will likely never go away.

If any of these populations ignore this virus, now or until forever, it will spread more broadly within that population.

Without an effective vaccine, which we all know is not imminent, the major therapeutic option for these millions of infected people will be antiviral chemotherapy. I personally think it's very unlikely we will ever eradicate the virus from an infected patient. Rather, I think we should consider this infection as chronic and permanent.

In the absence of complete drug suppression, we must consider that all drug efficacy will be time-limited. I think we should be very encouraged by the significant advances of HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy) during the last few years, but I also do not think we should be complacent about the future.

With a pathogen like HIV, which has established itself throughout the world, which initiates a chronic and permanent infection and which has tremendous replicating potential if unleashed by incomplete suppression, I think we must prepare for a future scenario in which, over time, this virus will learn to evade all the current drugs we have. And therefore we are going to have a continual need for new and potent antivirals that can target drug-resistant virus.

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This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1998. AEGIS.