If anti retrovirals prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients doesnt it increase chances of transmision to others

What do you call Magic Johnson in a wheelchair?

Of course, if they continue to have unprotected sex with others. The benefit is an improved quality of life until the end of their lives

let us hope that for some reason you do not get this terrible disease. hiv/aids is in the same category as leprosy was years ago.. in 5-10 years there will be a cure (if not already), just as a cure was found for leprosy. i am so glad that we are not sending them to an hiv/aids colony, aren't you?

If they were maliciously spreading it to others, than sure. There are laws against that in many countries.

While it can give them more time, it does decrease the chance of them spreading the virus any time there is contact. These drugs lowered the quantity of virus in the blood stream, therefore making transfer far less likely.

But yes, effort to prolong life also have to be accompanied with education and resources. Just sending drugs to people is not enough, breaking stereotypes and cultural fears is important to slowing the spread of HIV.

Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is designed to do two things:

(1) lower the viral load (amount of virus in the blood) by attacking the virus at different stages of replication. There are four main classes of ART medications currently available. Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs or Nukes) and Non-Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs or Non-Nukes) are designed to attack the virus at the RNA recoding stage. Protease Inhibitors (PIs) and Fuzeon Inhibitors attack at other stages. By slowing or stopping the virus from replicating, they reduce the speed at which the virus progress to advanced HIV.

The virus is still present in the infected individual's system, even with undetectable viral loads (less than 50 copies per ml). This neither increases nor decreases the chance of transmition to others. Safe sex practices are proven to greatly reduce the risk of transmission.

(2)increase the CD-4 (T-helper) cells in the blood, thus boosting the immune system. This provides for a better quality of life by reducing the risk of severe problems from other viral and bacterial agents. When the CD-4 count is below 200, there is a increased risk of serious complications from Opportunistic Infections such as Pneumacytis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP - baterical infection in the lungs), Toxoplasmosis (a relatively common bacteria found in animal feces and soil), among other infections.

The bottom line is that the only thing that increases the chance of transmission of the HIV virus from one individual to another is unsafe sexual practices and/or intravenious drug use (with shared needles). Instances of HIV infection (or seroconversion) through blood transfusion (and other blood based products like plateletts) have been practicially eliminated due to rigorous screening of blood supplies in the U.S. since the late 80s / early 90s.

Todd (AIDS - positive since 2004)