AIDS and the pharmaceutical industry

The virus is present in blood and all body fluids and is known to be spread through exchange of fluids from an infected person to another person through sexual intercourse sharing of needles or even through embryonic fluid from a mother to an unborn foetus.It mostly attacks the immune system reducing the CD4 cells that are vital in the safe guarding the normal physiological function of the body making the body more prone to attack by other diseases for example tuberculosis. AIDS has affected a massive number of people in the third world countries especially in Africa where presence of sophiscated laboratories for research was a mere dream.In the late 1980s ARVS were introduced and were thought to cure AIDS but they were too expensive to be afforded by many people especially in the developing nations where poverty levels are very high. AIDS spread at a very fast rate and there was need to curb this rate of new infections.The need to produce drugs effective against AIDS proved almost i mpossible because the virus according to scientist is said to shift from one place to another along chromosome and therefore difficult to target them.Due to the increased prevalence of AIDS there was a call for the pharmaceutical industries to respond fast and promptly to this life threatening disease. The development of new drugs involves a lot of processes and technology making them relatively expensive to for instance those people struggling to make a living in developing nations.The high cost of branded drugs has led to development of generic drugs which are less costly and have the same constituents.   Despite the high numbers of infections in developing nations, research and manufacture of new drugs whether branded or generic is in the industrialized nations mostly.For sure the pandemic has led to a lot of suffering especially to those who are diagnosed with AIDS due to stigmatization. The impact of AIDS to economies of developing nations is extensive leading to decrease in labor power. This is because of the fact that most individuals affected are young people leaving the work load to the elderly persons.ConclusionAIDS has infected only a small proportion of the world population but in many ways has affected each and every individual. It is therefore the responsibility of every body to help bring the suffering of the people and economies to a halt.The pharmaceutical companies also have a responsibility in ensuring that drugs developed for prolonging lives of the infected people distributed fast and promptly to them.   With the help of scientists and researchers the pharmaceutical industries are also faced with the challenge of developing new drugs capable of curing the disease.