drug resistance

A recent study showed that Pfizer's Paxlovid, the most effective Covid drug, failed to prevent infection when given to people who were exposed to the virus but had not yet become infected. Bad news, right? Actually, no - it's quite the opposite. Here's why.
A Medscape article entitled "Five-Day Course of Oral Antiviral Appears to Stop SARS-CoV-2 in Its Tracks" was recently published. Don't fall for the title. It's not that simple.
Imagine you’re a firefighter trying to prevent a house from burning to the ground. After many hours of hard work you’ve rescued the family, saved their pet chinchilla and extinguished every visible ember — a job well done. Wouldn’t it be strange if the blaze came roaring back the following day?
Until recently, it looked like the African AIDS epidemic might finally be controlled, with the widespread use of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. But poor compliance has caused HIV to mutate in a way such that tenofovir, one of the most important ARV drugs, often no longer works, threatening not only Africa, but world as well.