Abstract
After decades of its first appearance, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS at a more severe stage, continues to be a major threat to human health and requires developments in diagnosis and treatment. Thus, modern scholars and scientists advocate for more innovative and affordable infection diagnosis, prevention, and treatment than what is available now. To advance in the combat against HIV and AIDS to save millions of people, a new curing method should be invented in response to contemporary antiretroviral medicine, and early disease diagnostic tests should be widely promoted and used. Two articles were analyzed to gather information on the recent state of HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment measures.
HIV/AIDS
After decades of its first appearance, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS at a more severe stage, continues to be a major threat to human health and searches for developments in diagnosis and treatment. Being a deadly infection, HIV was seen as an incurable and unstoppable punishment (Lu et al., 2018). Despite an enormous number of lethal cases, many years of fighting the virus have shown hope in finding an effective and long-lasting solution to this problem. Even though the current treatment approach significantly prolongs the lives of individuals with AIDS, it does not eradicate the disease that remains in their bodies (Lu et al., 2018). This paper analyzes two articles on HIV/AIDS to provide an overall overview of the situation and advocate for future research.
The first article, by McFall et al., describes current issues in diagnosis and HIV prevention methods. HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI), which leads to severe and lethal outcomes if left without treatment. In 2017, almost one million individuals died because of HIV-related health problems, while more than thirty-six million contained the infection (McFall et al., 2019, p. 9). Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS testing is not as widespread as the world would want it to be. The disease affects the low and middle-income communities the most, which often are not aware of symptoms or the HIV itself and cannot afford treatment even if diagnosed positive (McFall et al., 2019). Some of the commonly known STI preventative measures are condom usage and medical circumcision; however, many tend to abandon even these methods, meanwhile avoiding diagnostics (McFall et al., 2019). The infection is not only transmitted sexually – it can also be acquired differently. Up to thirty percent of children born whose mothers contain HIV will also inherit the disease (McFall et al., 2019, p. 11). The article provides an accurate summary of problems faced by healthcare systems worldwide in early diagnosis and spread prevention, and indicates unawareness as one of the main barriers.
Nevertheless, various preventative systems can help people from high-risk groups start the treatment at an early stage. The second article, by Lu et al., focuses on the current HIV/AIDS treatment approach and calls for innovation in the field. HIV weakens a human’s health system and allows for other types of diseases to affect the infected body, leading to a more severe acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Lu et al., 2018). For this reason, it is crucial to begin the anti-HIV measures as soon as possible to maximize one’s survival chances. Some preventative and treatment measures include various screenings and medical drugs, HAART currently being the most effective. Upon positive diagnosis for HIV and AIDS, immediate action begins to fight the disease. HAART is a “high active antiretroviral therapy”, also known as “cocktail therapy”, which has proven its significant impact on infected patients (Lu et al., 2018, p. 15). Although the invention of HAART was able to prolong the lives of people with HIV and AIDS by ten years or more, the deadly disease remains in their bodies and can affect their health if the treatment is interrupted (Lu et al., 2018). Despite being the best practice currently available, the cocktail therapy does not cure HIV, is expensive for widespread implementation and use, and can lead to other health issues, such as “lipo-dystrophy, cardiovascular complications, mitochondrial toxicity” and others (Lu et al., 2018, p. 17). The article emphasizes the lack of HIV/AIDS treatment methods that would be less harmful and more efficient than those available now. As a result, some choose to discontinue the therapy or cannot afford it anymore, again exposing themselves to a highly deadly virus.
Conclusion
The problem of the current state of the anti-HIV and AIDS approach is the inability to provide a sufficient and similar to HAART quality medicine that would be less harmful and more effective. Another issue lies in poor disease recognition and diagnosis, especially in low-income and developing countries. Future research should be done in the field to improve HIV prevention and treatment methods to make them effective and affordable for the public.
References
- Lu, D.-Y., Wu, H.-Y., Yarla, N. S., Xu, B., Ding, J., & Lu, T.-R. (2018). HAART in HIV/AIDS treatments: Future trends.Infectious Disorders – Drug Targets, 18(1), 15–22. Web.
- McFall, S. M., Maiga, M., Glucksberg, M., Achenbach, C. J., Palamountain, K. L., & Murphy, R. L. (2019). Supporting diagnosis and management of HIV/AIDS patients through point-of-care technology development. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 11, 9–15. Web.