The Autovaccine, a Solution against HIV?

Worldwide, each minute, six young people aged 15 to 24 get infected with HIV.

Researchers have been studying a way to improve the life quality of the HIV patients the so-called "autovaccine".

Researches in this direction have been made in Barcelona (Spain), Laussane (Switzerland) and New York.

This method consists in the controlled interruption of the anti-AIDS treatment, so that after various alternations of drug intake and "resting" periods, the patient manages to significantly get down the viral levels, stabilize them and strengthen his/her immune system confronted with the disease. Moreover, during the periods when the drugs are not taken, there are no secondary effects.

This method, that gave hope in the case of many HIV patients, would not be a complete cure, but it would indeed improve considerably the life quality.

On the other side, experts say that this could be really effective if the person is recently infected and has been immediately treated with the triple medication employed for attempting to hamper the disease's advance.

During three months, the patients are administered the triple therapy which manages to decrease the presence of the virus in the blood. After one month of interruption, the virus levels start to rise back, but after four repetitions of this type (of medication and interruption) the virus stabilized itself. This way, the patients could bear eight months without any medication.

Till a real anti-HIV vaccine will be made, many years can pass. That's why, the autovaccine could be a great solution for Africa, where too expensive treatments can not be carried on.

There are between 34 to 46 million people living with HIV worldwide, of which 22 to 27,4 million live in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Some data are horrifying: in Botswana, for example, the life expectancy has decreased to 30 years! ...