Experts at Peking Union Medical College Hospital recently detected HIV load in the aqueous humor of an AIDS patient's eye. This is the first time that Chinese experts have found HIV load in the aqueous humor.

Professor Li Taisheng, deputy director of the infectious disease department at the hospital, said the discovery indicates that when the test result of the HIV virus in a patient's plasma is negative there is still possibility that HIV virus exists in the patient's aqueous humor.

Professor Li said as domestically produced anti-HIV drugs enter clinics people infected by HIV and AIDS patients begin to receive regular treatment under certain conditions. However, the mechanism of the anti-HIV treatment is to check the activity of the virus leaving it in a "hibernation" state rather than a complete cure. Once the medication is stopped the quantity of virus would rebound. Moreover, the anti-HIV drugs are ineffective as far as some organs are concerned and the complications of these organs should receive enough attention.

(People's Daily July 28, 2005)