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Human Immunodeficiency Virus
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Human Immunodeficiency Virus The topic of this paper is the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, andwhether or not mutations undergone by the virus allow it to survive in theimmune system. The cost of treating all persons with AIDS in 1993 in theUnited States was $7.8 billion, and it is estimated that 20,000 new cases ofAIDS are reported every 3 months to the CDC. This question dealing with howHIV survives in the immune system is of critical importance, not only in thesearch for a cure for the virus and its inevitable syndrome, AIDS (AcquiredImmunodeficiency Syndrome), but also so that over 500,000 Americans alreadyinfected with the virus could be saved. This is possible because if we knowthat HIV survives through mutations then we might be able to come up with atype of drug to retard these mutations allowing the immune system time toexpunge it before the onset of AIDS. In order to be able to fully comprehend and analyze this question we mustfirst ascertain what HIV is, how the body attempts to counter the effects ofviruses in general, and how HIV infects the body.Definition HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is classified as a RNA Retrovirus. A retrovirus uses RNA templates to produce DNA. For example, within thecore of HIV is a double molecule of ribonucleic acid, RNA. When the virusinvades a cell, this genetic material is replicated in the form of DNA . But, in order to do so, HIV must first be able to produce a particularenzyme that ...
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