Celebrating World AIDS Day and Research for a Cure

Dec 1, 2021

Classic cares about our customers and our community, and believes in doing whatever we can to support and raise awareness for important issues. Since today is World AIDS Day, we’ll be supporting our community with a list of local HIV/AIDS related organizations and charities, facts on HIV/AIDS and prevention measures, and a special spotlight on a potential cure.

World AIDS Day began in 1988 as an international effort to raise awareness for those living with HIV/AIDS as well as prevention, treatment options, and research for a cure. World AIDS Day is an opportunity for people to unite across the globe and show support for those living with HIV/AIDS, and pay tribute to those who have passed from AIDS related complications. Since its discovery in 1984, more than 35 million people have died from HIV/AIDS related issues, and more than 38 million people are currently living with the virus.

Key Facts about HIV/AIDS and Prevention

HIV can be transmitted from an infected individual through contact with human bodily fluids such as sexual interourse or intravenous drug use. The virus can be found in bodily fluids from an infected person including blood, semon, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluid, vaginal fluid, and breastmilk.
To reduce risk of HIV, always use a condom or barrier method every time you have sex, avoid intravenous drug use and any sharing of needles or medical equipment.
You may ask a medical provider about securing PrEP( pre-exposure Prohphylaxis)
Avoiding high-risk behaviors such as unprotected sex or drug use you reduce your risk of contracting HIV.
Get regular testing and treatment for STDs and request an HIV/AIDS panel from your medical provider.
If you believe you may have been exposed to HIV, speak to your doctor about Post-exposure Prophylaxis medicines within 72 hours of exposure and you may greatly reduce your risks of contracting the virus.

An Unprecedented New Medical Advancement in Treating HIV/AIDS

Here at Classic we sell cars and we’re passionate about cars, and we were very excited to learn about recent medical advancements in HIV/AIDS therapy known as “CAR T-cell therapy.” As part of our own observation of World AIDS Day, we’d love to shed some light on this novel advancement in HIV/AIDS management.

Dual Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell therapy (CAR therapy) is in development as a potential cure for HIV/AIDS. Current treatment for HIV/AIDS involves a daily Antiretroviral therapy (ART therapy) which is designed to control the reproduction of HIV virus particles. CAR T-cell therapy is an immunotherapy currently employed in Cancer treatments which reprograms a patient’s cells to recognize and eliminate mutated or infected cancer cells. It is able to target and eliminate the diseased components to help patients recover from those life threatening illnesses. CAR therapy has shown great promise for HIV/AIDS patients if programmed to target HIV particles!

You can learn more about the improvements in this therapy via this post by Seattle Children’s Hospital and this post by Penn Medicine. Find out more info about the current clinical trials of this innovative therapy at ClinicalTrials.Gov!

Local HIV/AIDS Organizations to Support