HIV becoming less potent,gradually losing its ability to cause AIDS.

One of the world's deadliest virus,HIV is slowing its ability to cause AIDS, and evolving into a milder form .According to a study of more than 2,000 women in Botswana and South Africa.

Philip Goulder, a professor at Oxford University who led the study, said"Overall we are bringing down the ability of HIV to cause AIDS so quickly,"But it would be overstating it to say HIV has lost its potency — it’s still a virus you wouldn’t want to have."Anything we can do to increase the pressure on HIV in this way may allow scientists to reduce the destructive power of HIV over time.". If the trend that we’ve seen in the last 10 years in Botswana were to continue – and I see no reason why it shouldn’t – I think the number of people who can control the virus through their immune system would definitely go up – or be expected to go up – and eventually could be some tens of decades down the track – the majority of people.”

“You know, it’s not impossible to see HIV becoming less of a cause of disease. And that’s what you see in the monkeys who are naturally infected with SIV, the relation of HIV, which is where we actually got HIV from. They suffer no disease at all,”

The study also indicates that people infected by HIV are likely to progress to AIDS more slowly — in other words the virus becomes less virulent — because of widespread access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).
The findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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