The Global Burden of HIV/ AIDs

HIV/AIDS has proven to be a growing epidemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 33.2 million people had been diagnosed as HIV positive in 20075. While this epidemic has had profound implications worldwide, various regions are impacted disproportionately greater than others.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is acquired after the contraction of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The virus is subcategorized into HIV-1 and HIV-2, both of which can directly lead to AIDS but are notably different3. HIV-1 was first recognized in the U.S., while HIV-2 was first recognized in sub-Saharan Africa3. The WHO states that over 95% of the people infected with HIV are in developing countries, with sub-Saharan African reaching an astounding 28 million people5, mostly due to a lack of available nutritious food and the subsequent malnutrition that inadvertently follows3. While the loss of life is of concern enough, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is also proving to have large socioeconomic impacts. The poverty rate rises as the family households lose one or more working adults and companies lose valuable workers at the hands of a diagnosis5.

The virus works by attacking the CD4 T-lymphocytes of the immune system, eventually exhausting the body of these important cells. This profoundly lowers the body’s natural ability to protect an individual from infection. The depletion of these lymphocytes eventually leads to the symptoms associated with AIDS3.

While developing countries see high concentrations in HIV/AIDS due to the detriments of resource scarcity and malnutrition, many of the cases in the U.S. and developed countries are due to the lack of adequate sexual education and misuse or nonexistent use of sexual protection2. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some STDs have a strong correlation with contracting HIV/AIDS, mainly attributable to the behaviors that led to the STD, such as not using sexual protection, having multiple sexual partners and having anonymous partners2. With this information, we can advocate for equal accessibility to affordable condoms, sexual education, HIV testing and adequate treatment of STDs as a way to stop or lessen this epidemic5.

Antiretroviral therapy is considered to be the most effective form of treatment currently, consisting of multiple concoctions of FDA approved drugs3. Some of these drugs include reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, and fusion inhibitors, to name a few3.

The Global Health Impact project works to measure the health consequences of drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS4. Consider, for example, the GHI Index finds that Lamivudine (3TC) has the highest drug impact score of 31.2 %. Lamivudine is a type of antiretroviral drug that interferes with the enzyme reverse transcriptase, inhibiting the HIV virus-infected cells from producing more HIV1. The Global Health Impact Index allows better insight into how drugs are aiding the effort to stop this epidemic4. With information on the amount of need that is successfully alleviated by access to essential medicines, organizations such as the Global Health Impact Project are on the right path towards effective treatment for all by incentivizing producers of essential medicines to consider their current global impact and ethical obligations to health.

References:

1. CATIE. “3TC (lamivudine, Epivir)”. 2014. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “STDs and HIV – CDC Fact Sheet”. September 26, 2017.
2. National Center for Biotechnology Information. “Current Scenario of HIV/AIDS, Treatment Options, and Major Challenges with Compliance to Antiretroviral Therapy”. March 1st, 2016.
3. The Global Health Impact. “Global Drug Impact Scores”. World Health Organization. “HIV/AIDS”. June 18th, 2008.