With the European Parliament voting on the future of primate research there is no better time to discuss the medical benefits that such research provides – and which would be lost if primate research is severely restricted or banned.
We are all familiar with the use of drug regimes such as HAART to control HIV levels and prevent progression to AIDS in people infected with HIV, but an often overlooked area of HIV research is the development of drugs regimes that prevent infection taking place in the first place Examples of such regimes are the drugs used to prevent transmission of the virus from a HIV infected mother to her child during birth and the post-exposure prophylaxis that helps medical profesionals to avoid infection after accidental exposure to HIV-infected blood. Here Dr. Koen Van Rompay, a virologist at the University of California at Davis and founder of the development organization Sahaya International, explains how important animal research was to the early development of such HIV prophylaxis regimes, and how important it continues to be as scientists develop ever better treatments.
Since the piece is a little longer than the average blog post (but still a very readable length) it is attached as a word document which you can read by clicking NHP Prophylaxis – Van Rompay.
Speaking of Research 