| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Because it was first diagnosed among homosexual men, AIDS was initially speculated to be caused by sin, specifically linked to homosexuality and promiscuity. Not until 1984 was it discovered that everyone was at risk of HIV infection because it was transmitted through exchange of fluids via various modes of exposure that include but are not limited to heterosexual intercourse, male-to-male sex, blood transfusion, mother-to-child transmission during childbirth, and intravenous drug use. The discovery that no one was immune to HIV infection generated panic within the public, which in turn led to prioritizing research for HIV control in developed nations such as the United States. By this time, further research on HIV had also led to the discovery of the HIV life cycle: soon after the virus enters the body, it targets the CD4 cell as its host, from where it begins to rapidly replicate itself, destroying the CD4 cell in the process. Equipped with this information, scientists quickly directed efforts toward the development of HIV treatment drugs (Brunton et al., 2006).
History of HIV Treatment
Anti-HIV drugs were first invented in the late 1980s (Deeks et al., 2003; Hammer et al., 2006; HIV Clinical Resource, 2007; Laing & Hodgkin, 2006; Palella et al., 1998). During the early stages of AIDS, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) led the search for HIV treatment. This may be attributed to the fact that the AIDS-causing agent (HIV) is a retroviral virus. Retroviruses attack the immune system cells directly rather than the body. Retroviruses cause not only illnesses such as AIDS but also cancers. In the fight against cancer, after the National Cancer Act was passed in 1971, the NCI had screened numerous antiretroviral compounds to treat cancer, many of which had completed clinical trials (Gottlieb, 1981). Therefore, when HIV was first discovered, the NCI already had potential retrovirus treatment compounds in stock, from which a choice was made to experiment treating HIV. Of the compounds in stock was zidovudine (AZT). Although it initially proved ineffective, AZT had been synthesized in 1964 by Jerome Horwitz and his colleagues at the Michigan Cancer Foundation to treat cancer (Saunders, 2000). A decade