Management of HIV/AIDS – Current Practice & Future Hopes

Abstract

HIV/ AIDS pandemic, that started in the late twentieth century has continued into the 21^st century despite all the research and effort to control it. It is estimated that more than 34.3 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and 18.6 million deaths have occurred. By 2020 about 20 million will be orphaned due to the virus. India has the highest number of people with HIV globally, second only to South Africa. There are approximately 16,000 new infections every day. The advent of ART revolutionized the lives of people living with HIV/ AIDS but ART is not  a cure; ART merely keeps the viral replication suppressed. When ART is stopped the virus rebounds within a few weeks in almost all infected individuals. Recently UNAIDS has recommended the new strategy for control of HIV infection (Test & Treat) and laid down new targets (90-90-90 by 2020). This article reviews the current practices in management of HIV/ AIDS and highlights the future diagnostic therapeutic and preventive modalities that may soon become available to the clinicians.