HIV: South African Child ‘Virtually Cured’ of HIV
In yet another stunning advance in the search for a cure for HIV, doctors from South Africa have declared a nine-year-old child as the third one in the world to be “virtually cured” of the virus.
Shortly after being born in 2007, the child was found to have high levels of HIV in their blood. The child immediately underwent a 40-week regimen of antiretroviral treatment once this was discovered. Now, the HIV can only be detected in the child’s immune cells, but not in her body. The virus is practically dormant, and may only require treatment years down the road.
Previously, a child from Mississippi and from France were able to achieve the same results. The child from Mississippi received antiretroviral treatment just a day after they were born, resulting in the virus only becoming detectable 27 month afterward. The French child, on the other hand, has lived 11 years without needing further treatment.
While this is encouraging news, doctors are quick to temper expectations. The child’s doctors say that genetics played as big a part as the antiretroviral treatment in “curing” the child of HIV. According to Dr Michael Brady, Medical Director at Terrence Higgins Trust, this case will hopefully pave the way for a cure.
“Early HIV therapy, in both children and adults, has been shown to reduce some of the damage to the immune system that HIV causes in the first few weeks and months of infection,” he said. “If we can understand this mechanism better it will hopefully lead to novel treatment strategies and, maybe one day, a cure.”
How do you guys feel about this new development in the ongoing battle against HIV? Does this new case leave you feeling hopeful? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
I am a very optimistic person, however, there are certain things in which one must face reality.
Curing HIV will never happen. It will be too great a monetary loss to the pharmaceutical industry. This has be noted over and over again. That includes finding a cure for anything that brings in billions of dollars a year. I guess I’m “optimistic with a cynical edge”.
Dude, I’m ssooo in agreement with everything you just said, I just know/believe there are some really sickly-ruthless people in the world… “Win, as any cost?”
God willing there will be a cure to eradicate HIV within the next few years. The scientists worldwide are getting closer and closer every day.
i work with hiv/aids ppl. for 3yrs. i cant believe a4a would post an article an give ppl false hope.
False hope? Why are you saying such thing? We are hoping that the cure will finally be found, yes. Articles like these makes us believe that we are almost there and wanted to share the news with A4A users.
“virtually cured”
“practically cured”
As a parent with a child (now an adult) who was diagnosed as a toddler with a chronic life challenging disease, these “developments” bring more pain than hope and comfort. They always apply to only a scant percentage of the population with a given disease. They are random. They are all too often based on questionable science. They never result in a “cure”.
When real science and real research enable a doctor to prescribe a medication or a protocol, then there’s hope. Until then, these “developments do nothing but remind us that there is still no cure and life and its quality are still in jeopardy.
Why is this reported as only the 3rd case when Dr. Sebi, a black man, had cured persons before. He was taken to court and was successful, as he had in fact cured a number of persons.
How this remains a “secret” is beyond me. Man should have died a millionaire.