Effective HIV Regimen Has Dark Side

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20010425/hl/effective_hiv_regimen_has_dark_side_1.html

On Tuesday, April 24 the serves advisers found the two-drug combination of preventing the HIV virus to be passed on to a victims child, has major concern. They found the combination of zidovudine (AZT) and lamivudine (3TC) has resulted in a decrease of white blood cells and anemia in children.  There were more than 400 women researched in this study.  Each woman who carried the HIV 1 virus took a combination of AZT and 3TC, during their 32nd week of pregnancy. Researchers report, compared to a control group, the virus was five times lower in the group that took the drug combo. But a mutation was found in 40 percent of the children, suggesting that the combination of pills should started late in pregnancy, and stopped promptly after delivery. Toxicity was also found in children taking the AZT/3TC combination. The most frequent adverse reactions were neutropenia, a decrease in a type of white blood cells, and anemia.  Researchers also report the deaths of two children, at age 1, from neurologic complications related to cell dysfunction. Researchers have developed a third pill in order to try to prevent these mutations. AZT/3TC is not recommended for treatment without the third drug. The third drug still isn’t known how it is going effect childbirth.  Scientists are working hard to try to find out.

The significant of this article is the prevention of HIV to be passed through genes. Chemists and scientists are developing pills through compounds to try to help speed up this process.

My opinion is this article was informative. It’s really cool how science has developed so much that it could possibly find a cure for HIV.  HIV has infested our society like a swarm of bees and taken many lives with it. I believe each and every person should be given an equal opportunity of success in this world and that is what these studies are trying to do; prevent children from inheriting the HIV virus from their parents.