One major health problem faced by our country today is HIV. With its fast spread all over the archipelago, health agencies and bodies have been doing various efforts to educate Filipinos about the disease's mode of transmission and prevention.
Cases are concentrated among men who have sex with men, and secondarily, among female sex workers. HIV cases among men having sex with men multiplied over 10 times since 2010. HIV cases are getting younger. The first case of HIV infection in the Philippines was reported in January 1984.
This alarming occurrence has etched questions to the public as to whether there is already an existent and approved cure for the fatal disease.
The Philippines still uses the antiretroviral treatment or ART to address the HIV/AIDS patients. This treatment involves using different kinds of drugs such as Zidovudine, Lamivudine, and Nevirapine to boost the patient’s immune system.
The antiretroviral drug does not kill the virus that causes the disease. It’s simply a way to help fight infection. This way, the patient prolongs his/her life even with the disease. With this being said, patients have to go undergo lab examinations depending on their respective cases and receive this treatment throughout their existence. It is a form of therapy that they would have to undergo.
The answer is quite transparent. There is still no direct treatment for HIV. So, why is HIV so hard to conquer after all?
HIV infects a kind of white blood cell called a CD4 lymphocyte, a key player in the immune response. What makes HIV so sneaky is that it infects the very cells that are supposed to rub out viral infections.
HIV replicates in CD4 cells when they are activated -- that is, when they are triggered by an infection. But some HIV-infected cells become inactive before the virus replicates. They go into a resting mode -- and the HIV inside them becomes dormant until the cell is activated.
HIV drugs don't affect HIV hiding in resting cells. These cells represent a hidden reservoir of HIV. When treatment stops, the resting cells eventually become active. The HIV inside them replicates and quickly spreads. That's why current HIV treatments don't cure HIV.
This complicated mechanism makes it hard for even the highest state of medical technology we have right now to establish an efficient and convenient treatment of HIV. As for nurses, Patient Education is always a priority.
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