Good news about AIDS doesn’t come by very often, so this is worth noting, even though the findings are highly tentative:
The virus which causes Aids may be getting less powerful, researchers say.
A team at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Antwerp, compared HIV-1 samples from 1986-89 and 2002-03.They found the newer samples appeared not to multiply as well, and were more sensitive to drugs – some other studies argue they are becoming more resistant. […]
Dr Marco Vitoria, an HIV expert at the World Health Organization, said other diseases – such as smallpox, TB and syphilis – had shown the same tendency to weaken over time.
“There is a natural trend to reach an ‘equilibrium’ between the agent and the host interests, in order to guarantee concomitant survival for a longer time,” he said.
However, Dr Vitoria stressed that the latest findings should not lull people into a false sense of security.
“This kind of change cannot be adequately measured in years, but in generations,” he told the BBC News website.
He also questioned whether it was possible to draw firm conclusions from such a small study.
Mick Hartley 
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