Using technology to combat HIV/AIDS

Question 1

New HIV drug trials in the UK

Answer 1

• Raltegravir
• Made available to an estimated 73 000 HIV patients in the UK.
• Blocks an enzyme that is essential for HIV to replicate itself.
• Clinical trial found it to be effective for people taking regular antiretroviral drugs for about 10 years.

Question 2

Nanoparticle technology

Answer 2

• Johnson and Johnson working with Tibotec to develop Rilpivrine.
• Currently only in daily oral tablet form looking to be turned into a slow-release drug that can be injected once a month.
• Drug is being devloped using nanoparticle technology, which allows the drug to be injected into muscle tissue slowly for a period of up to 6 months.

Question 3

Using ICT to track HIV treatment in resource-poor countries/.

Answer 3

• Medical researchers in Australia have been developing information management technologies which link information between different aid agencies working in some of the hardest hit African nations.
• Using cost effective systems and involvement of local people it is hoped lives can be saved through direct care and prevention programmes.

Question 4

Oral vaccine technology to tackle HIV

Answer 4

• Department of Trade and Industry awarded a grant of £1.1 million to Cobra Biomanufacturing PLC to develop an oral HIV vaccine.
• The technology stems from research that was used to produce an oral vaccine for anthrax and plague.

Question 5

Eliminating HIV fro Semen

Answer 5

• Scientists in Japan have developed a process that ‘washes’ semen - eliminating HIV from it.
• they have been successful in extracting HIV free sperm and using this to artificially inseminate the female partner.
• The process is yet to go past the testing phase.

Question 6

HIV free breast milk

Answer 6

• Developed in Lusaka, Zambia.
• Process involves the ‘flash-heating’ of infected milk, which inactivates the virus, giving hope that breastfeeding could become safer in poor countries with high HIV infection rates.
• The new method simply involves heating a jar of expressed milk in a pan so it can be easily used by mothers at home.