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It is 40 years since the first cases of AIDS, the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), were detected. Since then, antiretroviral treatments have advanced in such a way that they allow a person to live with HIV without major problems. However, these treatments are not accessible to the entire population living with the virus and the vaccine is still seen as a distant possibility.
Optimism and prudence flood a day like December 1, when the fight against HIV and AIDS is commemorated internationally. The advances made in four decades are undeniable: 84% of people living with the virus have a diagnosis, 87% of these people have access to antiretroviral treatments and 90% of those who are on treatment have succeeded in suppressing their burden. viral, meaning that they do not spread the virus.
These are commendable achievements that, however, do not fully complete the objectives of international organizations for 2020. In addition, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a severe setback for diagnoses and access to treatments, which makes think to the World Health Organization (WHO) that the goal of eradicating AIDS by 2030 will not be met.
For example, in Latin America, HIV infections increased 21% since 2010, according to figures from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). In contrast, deaths from AIDS-related causes fell by 10%, indicating how well the treatments are working.
However, these basic treatments to defuse the threat posed by HIV are not accessible to everyone. On the African continent, one of the hardest hit by this disease, only 66% of the population living with HIV can take antiretrovirals, drugs that prevent virus infection from turning into disease and that cause HIV not to is passed on to other people.
On the other hand, PrEP, the preventive treatment that avoids the spread of the virus especially in populations with risk factors, is not administered regularly either, despite the fact that it has been shown to be effective in reducing the prevalence of the disease. Without going any further, in the United States, only 8% of African Americans with HIV access PrEP, while 63% of whites do.
But beyond the treatments, whose evolution has already had a huge impact on the world, the scientific community has been trying to find a vaccine for years. Unsuccessful: HIV has a mutational capacity ten times higher than the Covid-19 virus, for example, and manages to elude antibodies and vaccines in a fearsome way.
For now, there is only one study in clinical phase III (the last one), developed by Johnson & Johnson, which consists of four doses and which will obtain results in the last few months. On the other hand, Moderna began phase I of its clinical trials in August 2021 with a messenger RNA technology vaccine, similar to the vaccine against Covid-19.
The most optimistic outlook is that there could be an immunizer by 2023.
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