Can Aids Drugs Help Patients Affected with HIV?
Aids is a disease that affects over 38 million worldwide. There is no vaccine to prevent the spread of Aids, but there are Aids drugs that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved for treatment of the disease. The Aids drugs are divided up into several categories: Multi-class combination products such as Altripla, manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) such as Epivir manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and Videx, manufactured by Bristol Myers-Squibb, Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) such as Rescriptor, manufactured by Pfizer and Sustiva, manufactured by Bristol Myers-Squibb, Protease Inhibitors (PIs) such as Lexiva, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and Viracept, manufactured by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Fusion Inhibitors such as Fuzeon, manufactured by Hoffman-La Roche & Trimeris, and Entry Inhibitors such as Selzentry, manufactured by Pfizer.
AZT (also known as zidovudine or Retrovir), ddl (didanosine or Videx), and ddC (zalcitabine or Hivid) were among the first drugs developed to help fight the effects of Aids. AZT was proven to help lesson the transmission of HIV from a positive mother to her baby.
Why are there so many different types of Aids drugs? The Aids drugs are made to target a specific life cycle of the disease and often, using a combination of them proves to be far more affective than just taking one individual drug. The use of Aids drugs in the United States and Europe has resulted in a drop in the number of Aids deaths. One disadvantage of the Aids drugs is they often have side effects. Another disadvantage is that they are often expensive.
Another problem with Aids drugs is that as HIV reproduces, it can create different strains that are resistant to Aids drugs that previously was working for the patient. This means that over time, a drug could lose its effectiveness and the patient has to switch to another drug or combination of drugs.
Disclaimer: Cliff Schaffer does not personally endorse or support any of the comments made within the writings of this article. |
