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"AIDs virus may hide in the gut, study
finds"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(30/07/06)
WASHINGTON: The AIDS virus hides out inside people's intestines, researchers
said yesterday in a report that offers new understanding of the incurable
infection.
The virus replicates in the lining of the gut and does much of its damage to
the immune system there, Satya Dandekar, chairman of the Department of
Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California Davis
Health System, and colleagues reported.
Writing in the Journal of Virology, Dandekar said the study was the first to
explain why the drug cocktails taken by HIV patients so often fail to work
completely.
“The real battle between the virus and exposed individuals is happening in
the gut immediately after viral infection,” she said in a statement.
“We need to be focusing our efforts on improving treatment of gut mucosa,
where massive destruction of immune cells is occurring. Gut-associated
lymphoid tissue accounts for 70% of the body's immune system. Restoring its
function is crucial to ridding the body of the virus.”
HIV cannot be cured but the drugs, known as highly active antiretroviral
therapy, or HAART, can keep the virus under control.
At first, doctors had hoped that years of treatment might eventually
eradicate the virus, but, 25 years into the epidemic of AIDS, it is clear
that cannot happen. — Reuters
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