Hope for HIV victims as scientist developed antibodies

With the serious health and development challenges HIV/ AIDS poses to humanity, scientists have developed an antibody that attacks 99% of HIV strains. Already tested on monkeys, the first clinical trials on human beings could begin next year, according to a report on the BBC.

The study, published in the journal ‘Science’, is a collaboration between the United States (U.S) National Institutes of Health and Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company and it attacked three key parts of the virus – making it harder for HIV to resist the antibodies. Up until now, HIV has been difficult to treat because of its ability to mutate and change its appearance.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus) that causes HIV infection and over time acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive and without treatment, average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.

There were approximately 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2015, majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Of these, 1.8 million were children, most of whom were infected by their HIVpositive mothers during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. Presently, Nigeria has the highest number of HIVpositive children, according to the coordinator of the National AIDS/STI Control Programme, Dr. Sunday Agboje.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 3.2 Nigerians adults are currently living with HIV. According to data issued by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, at least 80 per cent of eligible adults (women and men) and 80 per cent of children (boys and girls) are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) based on national guidelines by 2015.

President of the International Aids Society, Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, said the report of the antibody which can attack 99 per cent of HIV strains, is an exciting breakthrough. Medical experts said this development would benefit African populace which presently bear the greatest burden of HIV