Immunodeficiency Virus and allow it to survive in the immune system. The cost of

treating all persons with AIDS in 1993 in the United States was $7.8 billion, and it is

estimated that 20,000 new cases of AIDS are reported every 3 months to the CDC. The

question dealing with how HIV survives in the immune system is important, not only in

the search for a cure for the virus and its inescapable syndrome, AIDS (Acquired

Immunodeficiency Syndrome), but also so that over 500,000 Americans already infected

with the virus could be saved. This is possible because if we know that HIV can survive

through mutations then we might be able to come up with a type of drug to confuse these

mutations allowing the immune system time to erase it before the onset of AIDS. In order

to be able to fully comprehend and analyze this question we must first prove what HIV is,

how the body attempts to counter the effects of viruses in general, and how HIV infects

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 the core

The infected T cells perish as thousands of new viral particles burst from the cell

then become more difficult for the immune system to detect.

virus result in more T cell death. Also, the virus continuously produces escape mutants

virus will arise. To fully appreciate the extent of HIV multiplication, look at the numbers

particularly well suited to evolve away from any pressures it confronted (this idea being

able to ward off immune attacks. Now is when Nowak predicts that selection pressure

survival and is also better able to reproduce prolifically. As time goes by, offspring that

share the same trait become most generous in the population, outcompeting other

Some common words found in the essay are:
RNA-directed DNA, DNA DNA, University Oxford, HIV V3, Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Immunodeficiency Virus, RNA Retrovirus, DNA HIV, immune system, University Edinburgh, helper cells, reverse transcriptase, viral particles, genetic material, evolutionary theory, AIDS HIV, viral population, survive immune, survive immune system, allow survive immune, life cycle, computer simulation, peptides recognized immune, human immunodeficiency virus, hiv infection virus,
Approximate Word count = 1811
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)