nanotechnology – science working with tiny particles at the level of manipulating individual molecules. This is an exciting field of medicine. Drugs developed with nanotechnology would need much lower drug doses (hopefully cheaper and having fewer side effects) and would be longer lasting (perhaps being taken every2–4 weeks).
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
reinfection – catching HIV a second time. When an HIV-positive becomes infected with second strain or type of HIV. Sometimes called superinfection.
encephalitis – inflammation of the brain.
natural history – the pattern a disease follows if it is not treated. The natural history of HIV includes very high viral load in the first weeks or months of infection (seroconversion), a drop in CD4 counts that then recovers, and then a slower progressive increase in viral load and decrease in CD4 count, that eventually lead to opportunistic infections.
quantitative (in a study) – where what is being measured has a numerical value or fits a pre-defined scale or range of responses.