There are sooooo many geniuses in this world... Why don't we have a cure for AIDS yet?

Answer 1

There are many reasons HIV [the virus that causes AIDS] has not been cured yet:

Unlike other viruses, HIV targets the immune system, which is what we rely on to protect ourselves from viruses in the first place. HIV disguises itself as something harmless and infects the cells which are usually used to direct the body's attack against harmful things. These cells are called CD4. By infecting and destroying the CD4 cells, the body can no longer recognize and destroy harmful viruses and bacteria. This is like burning down the firehouse, so when your house is on fire there's no one to come put it out! By infecting the body's immune system HIV has found a way to be sneaky and avoid being destroyed!

Another reason HIV is difficult to treat is that it is a Retrovirus. This means that after sneaking into the immune system's CD4 cells, it "takes off its coat" and inserts its RNA, or its "fingerprint", into the cell's own DNA, which is used to make copies of itself. Only now that the CD4 cell has HIV's RNA in it, it is now making copies of...new HIV cells. This goes on millions of times per day so the HIV multiplies on and on, destroying CD4 cells until eventually, years later, the person's immune system no longer works.

HIV has to first gain entry to a person's body to do this, and it has a special trick for this too. One of the main ways HIV is transmitted is through unprotected sexual activity, and this is something that most people do from the time they're in their late teens on. It can take years for an HIV positive person to have any symptoms, so they may look and feel the same way they did before they were infected. Since many people who have HIV don't know it until they get tested, they can pass the virus on to anyone they have unprotected sex with or share needles with and neither they or their partners would realize it until they finally got tested for the virus.

Finally HIV is a moving target so scientists have trouble catching up with it. There are many strains of HIV which are all slightly different, so a vaccine would have to be able to stop all these strains to be effective. Also, an infected person's virus replicates billions of times a day and sometimes changes slightly, meaning that they have to change to new medications which will be effective against the newer version of their virus.

These are a few of the main reasons HIV hasn't been cured or vaccinated against.

Answer 2

There isn't a cure for the common cold or the flu.. so I'm not expecting a cure for AIDS any time soon. The reason for there not being a cure for these things is that they mutate almost from person to person. If I give you the flu.. the flu that you get and give to someone else will be different. It's hard to fight something that changes all the time. There will come a time when something is found, but most researches are not looking for a cure, they're looking for something that will help elongate the persons life and quality of life while they live with a disease that many people don't think will ever be cured.

Answer 3

Because AIDS effects the whole blood stream, there is currently no treatment that can reach all areas in your body so there were a cure the body would just re-infect itself with the blood the cure didnt reach.

Hope that makes sense.

Answer 4

They still haven't figured out a cure for the common cold, so AIDS is a pretty big ask!

Answer 5

Have you studied about AIDS and seen how it behaves? It is a more difficult virus to deal with than the cold.

Answer 6

because they are making to much money
on the medications.
all the pharmaceuticals care about is money
not about finding a cure for cancer.

Answer 7

because it GOVERNMENT rigged!!! It's FAT, RICH WHITE MEN DECIDING TO CONTROL POPULATION GROWTH IN AREAS THAT ARE COMPLETELY UNIMPORTANT TO THEIR QUEST FOR MORE FAT MONEY! IE:THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES,HOMOSEXUALS, DRUG ADDICTS ETC. THAT'S MY THEORY ANYHOO...