PHL B09 Biomedical Ethics

Question:

Is HIV not considered a serious issue because of HAART?

Answer to Question: PHL B09 Biomedical Ethics

HIV is no longer considered a life sentence

HIV is no longer considered a death sentence after the invention of HAART.

HIV-positive status was considered a death sentence at the time of its discovery.

HIV is now considered a chronic illness such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease.

HAART is a treatment that significantly reduces viral replication. It lowers the plasma HIV-1 viral level to below detection limits.

The body’s immune system becomes reconstituted when the plasma HIV-1 viral load is lower (Arts & Hazuda 2012.

If taken as directed, however, these drugs do not suppress the HIV viral loads.

The harmful effects of HIV were reduced by the introduction of HAART.

People with HIV can live almost as long as the uninfected.

The combination of multiple medications helps to prevent opportunistic diseases that can lead directly to AIDs.

In fact, HIV has significantly reduced the rate of death among people with HIV.

Martinez and colleagues followed 4471 HIV-positive patients who were on HAART for at least one year between 1997 and 2004.

Martinez et.al., 2007: They found that the death rate during this time was only 5.5%

The number of HIV-related death continues to drop as more people live longer.

Individuals who have been infected for a prolonged period and are now at greater risk of becoming infected are those who present to the hospital with advanced symptoms not previously seen in HAART-treated individuals.

HIV is not a terminal illness. The disease can be treated with HAART and life expectancy will not be affected.BibliographyArts, E. & Hazuda, D., 2012.

HIV-1 antiretroviral therapy.

Cold Spring Harbor perspectives, 2(4). p.a007161.Martinez, E. et al., 2007.

Incidence and causes for death in HIV-infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapies compared with the estimates of the general population from the same area and of similar age. HIV medicine, 8(4), pp.251-58.