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Asked by Ian to anuantony, Duncan, Jayne, Katherine, Sajid on 8 Nov 2017.
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Duncan McNicholl answered on 8 Nov 2017:
Because it’s a really sneaky virus. To be able to treat an infection, you need to be able to tell which cells are normal body cells that are supposed to be there and which cells are strangers that aren’t supposed to be there. In HIV, there’s only one molecule on the outside of an HIV virus that is any different to what’s normally in your body, so making a drug that will only act on HIV and not on your body cells that are all around it is really difficult. Also, you can have HIV for ten years without having any signs that you have it, so it can move from person to person quite easily in that time.
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Sajid Javed answered on 9 Nov 2017:
Like Duncan said the immune system finds it difficult to recognize the virus. however there are drugs available to reduce the levels of HIV to low number so the chances of getting AIDS is reduced. the drug treatments do have some horrible side effects and the suffers have to take a lot of pills everyday but they can live a relatively normal life. Complications occur when the virus develops resistance to the drugs and a doctor has to work out which drug to change them to. i’m making a test that will help doctors make this decision by looking a biomarkers on HIV which have been show to indicate resistance to specific drugs.
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