HIV is among the world's deadliest virus among humans and takes millions of lives each year, owing in part to its severe complications and costly medication. But now, researchers have found a experimental drug that can be used to treat people suffering with HIV. The news is a sheer joy for several HIV patients, many of which believe their disease is incurable especially with the threat of drug resistance. Called "Ibalizumab," the new drug is touted to cure drug-resistant HIV

What is drug-resistant HIV?

According to AIDS Info, an HIV patient actually becomes drug resistant when HIV treatments no longer elicit favorable biological responses. When a patient is diagnosed with HIV, the virus in itself multiplies - treatment against it sometimes creates drug resistance, rendering it ineffective for succeeding sessions.

HIV medicines cannot stop the virus from multiplying in drug-resistant patients. A person usually found to be drug-resistant after taking the medicines to treat HIV are usually left with much-lesser chances of survival.

There are numerous studies have been done by the doctors and researchers in the past to tackle drug resistance in HIV treatment but apparently no one come up with solid results. That, until the discovery of Ibalizumab, which was described by clinical professor Dr. Jacob Lalezari in a report by WebMD that the drug gave good results after a weeklong research on patients yielded improvements in among 80% of them.

This discovery is set to take centerstage in New Orleans, Louisiana at IDweek, as well as before several organizations. It will be decided after that if Ibalizumab can be mass-produced as a medication, but this drug cannot be affordable for many people, Lalezari said. Understandably, the drug's qualities against drug resistance make it very expensive.