A study finds that HIV is being watered down.
The HIV pandemic is beginning to slow down, according to a study by the University of Oxford.
A team of scientists at Oxford found that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is being weakened as the years progress. The study is based on 2,000 individuals infected with HIV in both Botswana and South Africa.
The study finds that the time HIV takes to become AIDS is longer than it once was. The virus is losing its potency due to forced adaptation to stronger immune systems. Scientists claim that when the virus infects an individual with a particularly vigorous immune system, it is forced to adapt in order to replicate and survive. These adaptations take the form of weaker pathogens, and therefore a weaker HIV.
Though the virus is still dangerous, scientists believe its potency will continue to decrease as the virus adapts. The study finds that HIV in the individuals in Botswana, where the virus struck 10 years prior to South Africa, became less virulent than the virus present in the individuals in South Africa.
“HIV adaptation to the most effective immune responses we can make against it comes at a significant cost to its ability to replicate,” Philip Goulder, a professor at Oxford, told Reuters in a phone interview.
The ONE campaign, a group dedicated to battling disease and poverty in Africa, stated that the fight against AIDS is finally reaching a turnaround. The number of newly infected individuals this year was less than the number of individuals who obtained access to drugs that will inhibit the AIDS virus.
Oxford’s study also found that anti-retroviral drugs are having a positive effect against HIV. Similar to the adaptation of HIV in the wake of particularly effective immune systems, the drugs cause the virus to lose potency by forcing adaptation.
The scientists believe in the possibility that the virus will eventually die out.
Currently, 35 million people are infected with the virus and 40 million have died as a result of the virus. Both scientists and activists claim that the fight against HIV is far from over, and efforts must continually be made to contain the pandemic. But for the first time in the history of the virus, it is weakening; the field is fortified by the news.
