• Submitted by: Luis Manuel Mazorra
• Health and Medicine
• 03 / 15 / 2012

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Dr. Jorge Perez, director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, said in the capital that all patients diagnosed with HIV / AIDS in the country receiving antiretroviral drugs, mostly made ​​in Cuba.
71 percent of people treated Cubans consume generics, and seeks to broaden the spectrum, but this is a technological challenge and research, said the expert told Prensa Latina.

Antiretrovirals are now the only alternative for people affected by the disease, the effects are intended to reduce viral replication and the risk of transmission, while restoring the immune system, and so far have shown good efficacy.

On the island, there is a high survival rate (87 percent) and good quality of life in the group of seropositive treatment and results to date have been published in journals of international scope, said Perez.

Besides maintaining constant trials to determine efficacy, toxicity, interactions and new combinations, which bodes well for a big stage of therapeutic alternatives for these people, he said.

At present the prevalence of AIDS in the Cuban nation is among the lowest in the region, only 0.19 percent, with sexual transmission the leading cause of infection, particularly among men who have sex with men (88.2 percent of cases).