|
|
Surviving AIDS
|
|
|
|
Program Overview
|
|
|
NOVA follows AIDS researchers studying the immune systems of people
who have been infected with or exposed to HIV but remain
disease-free.
The program:
-
outlines how AIDS infects the body by invading and disabling the
body's first line of defense—helper T cells—so that
they can't signal killer T cells to destroy the virus.
-
relates that most efforts to combat the disease have focused on
a vaccine or powerful combinations of drugs that stop HIV from
replicating in the body.
-
describes the finding that some individuals who have been
exposed to HIV but are virus-free have a genetic mutation in
which one of two receptors necessary for HIV to bind to and
invade cells is missing.
-
notes the effectiveness of aggressive treatment in the disease's
first stages of infection.
-
tells about new methods of treatment for infants with the
disease.
-
shows what happens when a patient—whose early treatment
lowered his viral load—stops treatment altogether.
|
|
