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A new study has suggested that the weakened immune systems of people infected with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) puts them at higher risks of not fewer than seven types of cancer, but that the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection could help delay the onset of some of them.
According to the study published online this month ahead of the November print issue of The Lancet Oncology, French researchers examined the incidence of three AIDS-defining cancers (Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and cervical cancer) and four non-AIDS-defining cancers (Hodgkin's lymphoma, lung cancer, liver cancer and anal cancer) in 52,278 HIV-infected people.
The study authors also analysed the association between immunodeficiency, viral load, anti-retroviral treatment and the onset of the seven cancers.
Meanwhile, an immunologist and Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Nigeria, Prof. John Idoko, has stressed early and mass treatment of Persons Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as an effective way of preventing the transmission of the virus.
"We are a long way off from getting a HIV vaccine. It is unlikely that there will be a vaccine in the next decade. So the vaccine now is prevention. We have now seen that we can bring down the viral load to undetectable levels and prevent transmission with drugs.
Maybe we should give the drugs to everyone who has HIV and bring the viral load down and as such it can become a public good. So mass treatment can act as a way of preventing transmission," Idoko said.
A new study has suggested that the weakened immune systems of people infected with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) puts them at higher risks of not fewer than seven types of cancer, but that the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection could help delay the onset of some of them.
According to the study published online this month ahead of the November print issue of The Lancet Oncology, French researchers examined the incidence of three AIDS-defining cancers (Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and cervical cancer) and four non-AIDS-defining cancers (Hodgkin's lymphoma, lung cancer, liver cancer and anal cancer) in 52,278 HIV-infected people.
The study authors also analysed the association between immunodeficiency, viral load, anti-retroviral treatment and the onset of the seven cancers.
Meanwhile, an immunologist and Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Nigeria, Prof. John Idoko, has stressed early and mass treatment of Persons Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as an effective way of preventing the transmission of the virus.
"We are a long way off from getting a HIV vaccine. It is unlikely that there will be a vaccine in the next decade. So the vaccine now is prevention. We have now seen that we can bring down the viral load to undetectable levels and prevent transmission with drugs.
Maybe we should give the drugs to everyone who has HIV and bring the viral load down and as such it can become a public good. So mass treatment can act as a way of preventing transmission," Idoko said.
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