[Current clinical aspects of AIDS]

Our knowledge of the natural history of VIH infection has considerably increased during the last years. We know now that clinical evolution will depend of host factors as well as of viral characteristics. Among the host factors, the early specific cytotoxic response to VIH components plays a major role. Phenotypic variation of the virus (syncytium inducer mutants) and viral load in the lymph node and in the circulating CD4 cells play also an important role. As far as antiviral therapeutic is concerned, at the moment we know that monotherapy with nucleosides analogues is probably of limited efficacy because of emergence of resistance. Future perspectives include combination of antivirals aimed to prevent emergence of resistance and to reduce toxicity.