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Old 04-27-2009, 09:15 AM
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sbaglio sbaglio is offline
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No, there isn't a cure for HIV yet (and there's a difference between HIV and AIDS), but when HIV+ people take their ARV's as they should, their viral load goes way down (nearly undectable or undectable) and they are able to live normal lives with a normal life expectancy.

I think you're absolutely correct, with one caveat. HIV has only been around now (in the present form that affects humans) for nearly 30 years. Effective antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been available for almost 2 decades. We don't yet know if people with HIV will have a normal life expectancy, as we haven't dealt effectively with properly managed HIV for long enough.

It's a perfectly acceptable assumption that we all make, but who knows what the effects of the treatment are after 30 or 40 years? How the virus will evolve in the longterm, if there will be an effective vaccine...In addition, the effects of HAART on children, in the longterm, are still largely unknown. Much of the data regarding HIV drugs comes from adult studies, and is extrapolated to children, which is never optimal.

Based on what we know now, however, I agree that one can expect that a child who has HIV and is on effective HAART, will live a fairly normal life.
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