The history of anti-hiv drugs

Abstract

In the 1980s, the average life expectancy following an AIDS diagnosis was approximately one year. Today, with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) started early in the course of HIV infection, people living with HIV can expect a near-normal lifespan. The success of cART, combined with powerful but nonetheless less toxic drugs has transformed HIV/AIDS from an inevitably fatal disease into a manageable chronic infection. The history of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS therapy, which spans over 30 years, is one of the most dramatic stories of science and medicine leading to the treatment of a disease. In this review article, I would like to try to describe about the history of developing anti-HIV drugs with my personal experiences.