• Question: Scientists are developing a cure for SIDA?

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      Asked by Thomas74 to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 10 Mar 2016.
      • Photo: Richard Friend

        Richard Friend answered on 10 Mar 2016:

        I’m guessing by SIDA you mean Síndrome de Inmunodeficencia Adquirida? We call it AIDS here ☺  Scientists are currently working on it (not me!) I think they’ve found some people who have definitely been exposed to the virus but didn’t catch it, so they’re looking into their DNA to find out why.

      • Photo: Lauren Laing

        Lauren Laing answered on 10 Mar 2016:

        Richard is right, there are scientists looking at trying to cure AIDs, at the moment there are some promising approaches to this: including the use of a neutralising antibody! A neutralizing antibody (NAb) is an antibody that defends a cell from the HIV virus. Have you studied the immune system yet?

        This is a big field of research, and lots of money has been invested in trying to progress this research.

      • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

        Stuart Atkinson answered on 16 Mar 2016:

        Yes, but so far there is no cure for the condition. The current treatment consists of a cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs which aims to keep the level of the HIV virus low and slow the rate of progression of the infection. With the current treatment, life expectancy can be from 10 to 40 years, and that’s amazing when you think about what a terrible thing it was when we first heard about the condition in the early 1980s and there was no treatment.

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