Africa: HIV Virus Grows Drug-Resistant As Funding for Research Stagnates

Over the past ten years, half of Africans infected with HIV were given the medicines they need. Millions of lives were saved. But the progress has a downside. The virus may mutate and become resistant, warn scientists.

"The fact that half of the Africans who are HIV-positive and are in need of medicines now have access to them is one of the greatest breakthroughs in medical history," exclaims Tobias Rinke de Wit, a professor at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. "But this development comes with a downside. If you start combating a virus, it tends to mutate and find a way of becoming resistant to the drugs that are used."

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