HIV and AIDS have fallen off our radar.
Not everybody has the luxury of forgetting about HIV and AIDS.
In Africa,nearly 25 million people are living with the virus.
In Asia,teenagers AIDS-related deaths are actually on the rise.
There are 50,000 new diagnoses each year.
What Happened to AIDS?
AIDS is just an advanced stage of HIV infection.
Today,only about 2% of people with HIV have AIDS.
We have all the tools we need to make HIV go away,Dr.
In that spirit, here are some things you might not know about HIV, but probably should.
And 12.8% of the people infected dont know they have it.
If youre HIV positive, knowing your status puts you at a huge advantage.
Treatment also reduces your chances of passing on the virus to others.
Everybody from age 13 to 64should be tested at least once in their lives, according to the CDC.
Once-a-year testing applies to anyone withrisk factors, including having sex with people whose HIV status you dont know.
Testing technology has come a long way, says Gerry Schochetman, senior director of diagnostics research atAbbott Laboratories.
(Abbott makes HIV tests.)
Older HIV tests detect antibodies, which the human body makes in response to the virus.
It takes weeks to months to make enough antibodies to show up on the test.
Newer combination tests detect antibodies plus the virus itself, andthis is the throw in the CDC recommends.
Combination testscan detect HIV within a month after infection, and often sooner.
You canfind testing services near you with this tool, or even order a kit totest yourself at home.
But not everybody gets on board with the treatment regimen.
Young people dont like to take medicine when theyre healthy, Dr. Kolber says.
One, named Hugh, avoided seeking treatment at first, and then found that hecouldnt swallow the pills.
He now lives with his parents and walks with a cane.
The drugs that treat HIV are expensiveroughly $2000 a month, Kolber estimates.
Alist of the drugs and their costs can be found here; most do not have a generic equivalent.
Private insurance and avariety of government programscan help to cover the costs.
The drugs alsohave side effects, which can become serious over time since people are (ideally!)
taking the drugs for decades on end.
That can include, for example,liver damageandosteoporosis.
Its called Truvada and costs about $1000 a month.
HIV treatment itself is also a form of prevention.
In that case, theyll be in the acute phase of infection, when theyre most contagious.
Its also possible for HIV-positive people to have uninfected children.
Treatment in pregnancy can reduce the chances of a mother passing the virus to her child.
Thats why HIV testing is often part of thestandard first-trimester bloodwork.
This girl, the Mississippi baby, seemed to have been cured.
That is,until the virus came back at age three.
When a patients viral load becomes undetectable, they still have the HIV virus in their body.
Ithides out in reservoirs like lymph nodes and bone marrow.
Vaccines have been in the works for a long time, and some people believe were getting very close.
Researcher Louis Pickertold Forbesthat the vaccine hes developing could be ready as soon as ten years from now.
The vaccine is 50% effective in monkeys.
We would love if there was 100% protection, says Dr. Kolber.
With a vaccine, or a cure, HIV could become a thing of the past.
But for now, our best bet is to take advantage of the tests and treatments we already have.
Michael A. Kolber, Ph.D., M.D.
Gerry Schochetman, Ph.D., is a Senior Director of Diagnostics Research at Abbott Laboratories.
Illustration by Tara Jacoby.
