ARGENTINA: A woman is believed to have recovered from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) without any medication or therapy, in a rare case that there has only been one documented incident before this.
According to the report published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, doctors theorized that the patient’s immune system expelled the virus by itself. To confirm this, more than a billion cells from the woman were tested and discovered to have no trace of the virus. This process can be employed to either eradicate or even cure HIV, experts noted.
The findings provide further evidence regarding the number of people born with a natural immune response to HIV. Some of these individuals have genetic conditioning while others like “the Esperanza patient”, the first documented case of HIV recovery, are infected but are found to have cleared out the virus solely through the immune system.
However, most people with HIV end up needing antiretroviral therapy (ART) that lasts a lifetime. If they discontinue taking the medication, the dormant virus can be revived and start causing issues all over again.
On the other hand, multiple reports have been individuals called “elite controllers” who can subdue the virus with no HIV medication.
“There may be a method to isolating a cure for people who are not able to do the same thing by themselves,” said Dr Xu Yu, a research head at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.
“We are looking at the possibility of bringing out this immune response in persons on ART, through inoculation and vaccination, so that their immune systems learn to control the virus without ART.”
Prof Sarah Fidler, an expert in HIV Therapy at the Imperial College of London, noted that this recent work could help update currently developing immune therapies.
Then again, Dr Andrew Freedman from the Cardiff University Medical School maintains that current HIV drugs are always effective. While researching new treatment options is essential, making life-changing ART accessible globally is also of critical urgency.