• Question: would there ever be a drug that prevents people from getting HIV?

    Asked by michaelakanyako to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Darren Nesbeth

      Darren Nesbeth answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      People are working all the time to make such a drug. Unfortunately it’s not easy, so they haven’t been able to make one yet. Perhaps noone will until one day Michael Akanyako becomes a scientist and makes a breakthrough.

    • Photo: Lori-An Etherington

      Lori-An Etherington answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Millions of pounds are spent each year trying to answer this question so hopefully a prevention, perhaps in the form of a vaccine, might be developed in the future to prevent HIV infection. There are drugs called Antiretroviral medications which are used in the treatment of HIV and there is some evidence that they can also help to prevent HIV transmission if given in certain circumstances. These antiviral drugs act by preventing the HIV virus from infecting human cells at various points in its life cycle.

    • Photo: Michelle Hudson-Shore

      Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      That is a difficult question that many scientists are trying to answer. Hopefully because of all the work that is going on we will eventually find a vaccine to stop people from getting it. The problem is that HIV mutates so quickly that it is hard to find something that will work on the current virus and any new mutatations of it.

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