What is it about?
AIDS is often described as being caused by an HIV infection but HIV turns out to be very difficult to transmit and most people infected by it do not go on to develop AIDS. Those individuals who do become actively infected and go on to develop full-blown AIDS almost invariably are co-infected with other disease agents such as sexually transmitted diseases. Moreover, these co-infections interfere with treatment regimens for HIV, making them much less effective. And the presence of co-infections can impair the efficacy of HIV prophylaxis measures such as PrEP.
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Why is it important?
AIDS is more than just an HIV infection. To eliminate AIDS, we also need to find ways to lower people's risks of other sexually transmitted diseases and chronic infections such as hepatitis, cytomegalovirus, etc. Simply treating or protecting against HIV is not enough.
Perspectives
Thirty years ago the idea that co-infections (or more generally, cofactors that alter immune function) increased the risk of HIV infection and subsequent AIDS was labelled a form of "AIDS denialism". Today, the evidence that these cofactors modify and may even be necessary to contract AIDS is beyond question. Yet, because of the stigma with which the cofactor theory is burdened historically, many public health officials and physicians fail to treat patients for cofactors thus impairing their prognoses.
Professor Robert Root-Bernstein
Michigan State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Coinfections increase the risk of HIV acquisition, AIDS progression, and therapy and prophylaxis failure: a review, Academia Medicine, August 2024, Academia.edu,
DOI: 10.20935/acadmed7295.
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