Two men cured of HIV

These two men aren't the first to be "cured" of HIV. Timothy Ray Brown, a man who previously had HIV and leukemia, received a stem cell transplant from a person with a genetic mutation called delta 32 that made them HIV-resistant. Researchers in California found traces of HIV in his tissue in July 2012, but Brown claims that the any virus that remains is dead and can't replicate.

However, a stem cell transplant is risky and has only been performed on people who may die from cancer. It is not a realistic treatment option for most people living with HIV, who can usually live normal, comfortable lives if they take antiretroviral drugs.

Any transplant requires weakening the immune system, which puts the patient at a 15 to 20 percent risk of death, the New York Times reported. A third HIV-positive patient who had received the same treatment as the Boston subjects died from cancer. The subjects' bone marrow donors did not have the delta 32 mutation.

"The next step is to confirm this in larger numbers," said Dr. Sharon Lewin, an infectious disease professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, told MedPage Today.

Lewin, who did not treat the Boston patients, added that she did not believe that the stem cell treatment would become widespread because of the risk and money involved. However, patients who undertake the treatment are "absolutely instrumental in moving the science forward."

There has been another way HIV has apparently been cured in humans. A baby who was born infected with HIV has had no traces of the virus for more than 2 and a half years after receiving treatment shortly after she was born. Doctors at the University of Mississippi began giving the HIV-positive infant aggressive three-drug HIV treatments within 30 hours of her birth. The medications appear to have removed HIV from the baby's bloodstream before the body was able to store the virus, which can replicate in a person's system after treatment is stopped.

The World Health Organization pushed for earlier treatment of HIV earlier this week. Currently, most countries including the U.S. recommend beginning antiretroviral therapy (ART) when a patient's CD4 cells (also known as T-cells) drop below 350 cells/mm3.

The WHO now recommends treatment begin as soon as the person's cell count drops below 500 cells/mm3. They also pushed for ART for all children under 5 with HIV, all pregnant and breastfeeding women with HIV and all HIV-positive people who have one partner who is uninfected.

Two men cured of HIV 2013-07-06T06:50:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: My Videos Tube