UK scientists and clinicians working on a groundbreaking trial to test a possible cure for HIV infection say they have made remarkable progress after a test patient showed no sign of the virus following treatment.

The research, being carried out by five of Britain’s top universities with NHS support, is combining standard antiretroviral drugs with a drug that reactivates dormant HIV and a vaccine that induces the immune system to destroy the infected cells.

Antiretoviral drugs alone are highly effective at stopping the virus from reproducing but do not eradicate the disease, so must be taken for life.

Fifty patients are taking part in the trial and early tests on the first person to complete the treatment show no signs of the virus in his blood, the Sunday Times reported.


There is still a long way to go before the treatment can be deemed a success as the virus has previously re-emerged in people thought to have been “cured” and the use of antiretroviral drugs means the researchers cannot be sure the HIV has gone. Nevertheless there is optimism over the findings.

Mark Samuels, the managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infra­structure, told the Sunday Times: “This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”

HIV is able to hide itself from the immune system in dormant cells where highly sophisticated modern testing cannot find it and therefore resist therapy. The treatment endeavours to trick the virus into emerging from its hiding places and then trigger the body’s immune system to recognise it and attack it, an approach that has been called “kick and kill”.

There are approximately 37 million people living with HIV worldwide and about 35 million people have died from the virus.

The difficulty of declaring a patient clear of HIV was illustrated by the case of a girl in Mississippi, who was put on a strong course of antiretroviral drugs within 30 hours of her birth in 2010 after her mother was found to be HIV positive.

Treatment continued until the hospital lost contact with the mother 18 months later. When mother and child reappeared five months later the baby had no detectable virus in her blood, raising hopes that early intervention had cured her, but two years the virus had re-emerged.

The only person believed to have been cured was Timothy Ray Brown, an American treated in Germany. He needed a bone marrow transplant to replace his own cancerous cells with stem cells that would remake his immune system and his doctor found him a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV infection due to a genetic mutation that blocks HIV from entering the cells in the human body.

However, stem cell transplants are difficult and potentially dangerous for the recipient and only undertaken where they can save a life.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/02/scientists-testing-cure-for-hiv-report-progress?CMP=twt_gu

FTC? No, FFTC (first-time first to comment)
Seriously nairalanders you got to behave well and stop this childish FTC thing.
And the boy below, is you got the germ?, you dissing me cos you happy thinking they got the cure? Not so fast, they made a lot of closeness which ended failures.

Hiv no longer is a threat. Can somebody tell the guy above me to change his diapers?

Great progress

Up next... EBOLA!

good news.

Interesting. ..!

That one no mean say mke una go dy do flesh to flesh with an olosho oh.if u try am ehn....

Muafrika2:
Great progress

Yeah it is

I Love Science.....................The World Will Soon Be A Better Place #Proudly A Scientist

Thumbs up for UK scientists


Say bye to diabetes by checking my signature below

what we often hear is 'remarkable progress' the progress no dey ever reach final stage. my people, continue to nack with caution cos i dont trust these scientists

are u kidding me

am i the only one dat is not happy with this news??

Our population to tripple in 5 yrs time

sexual immoralities will increase and gayism will quadruple

lies

Ooh lord let it be true we tired of rubbers

Good. But HIV; not AIDs.

This isnt good news for condom factory workers, some big pharmaceutical companies and even some "pastors"......... . Some guys be looking at their partners and in their mind be like "you this woman with your am not in the mood, make 'the cure' just do mistake come out first, na you go dey beg me"

Ps- where is Dr Abalaka??

SlaughterGang:

must u comment?
Stop displaying ur joblessness in a reckless manner

Success!

I don't pity promiscuous people..

attention should be given to cancer patients and not HIV/AID carriers.

Finally my neighbour is going to live long

It's still a long way from being a laudable news.

Another plus one for the asewosss

great news

duas4real:
Finally my neighbour is going to live long

ur neighbourabi na u sef..stop lieing on ut neighbour

Great news. Atleast, condoms will be cheap.

Two for N5

For the rich?