Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): The battle against AIDS, which began in the early 1980s and has succeeded in finding treatments to control the disease, is increasingly turning to a different phase: the hunt for a real and complete cure.
Special correspondent Spencer Michels has our story.
SPENCER MICHELS (Newshour): Fifty-seven-year-old Matt Sharp, who has had AIDS for 25 years, takes a mix of antiretroviral drugs each day to reduce his HIV levels and keep him alive.
Sharp, a former ballet dancer, says the medication has shortened his life, and makes him more susceptible to other ailments, like heart disease earlier than normal.
MATT SHARP: I’m faced with issues around growing older earlier because of having HIV for so long. I have been taking pills for over 25 years. I’m ready for a point where I can do something that my body can control the virus on its own.
SPENCER MICHELS: Sharp has volunteered for studies now under way that, if successful, could eliminate the need for a lifetime of powerful pills.
Scientists and medical doctors are working both in the lab and in clinical settings to find out more about HIV, especially where it lurks, and to find out how patients will respond to experimental treatments. The idea, of course, is to completely eradicate the HIV.
No comments:
Post a Comment