According to British researchers, a patient at a London hospital who suffered from HIV is now the second person in the world to be cured. The finding of the research will be presented in a medical conference held in Seattle, USA. The researchers have refrained from giving any info regarding the patient’s age, nationality, name or religion.
Are We Closer To Curing HIV
Since the 1980s the HIV pandemic has claimed 35 million lives and has infected a total of 37 million people globally. Different government and non-governmental bodies have funded various projects aimed at curing HIV which resulted in little to no positive outcome.
A team of researchers co-lead by doctor Gupta a professor and HIV biologist while talking to the media said a London patient has been functionally cured of HIV. The patient received bone marrow from a person with a rare genetic mutation called CCR5 Delta 32 that made him HIV resistant three years ago and placed under strict monitoring. More than 18 months after coming off antiretroviral drugs, highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man’s previous HIV infection.
According to Doctor Gupta, the test results are proof that one day HIV will become curable. Furthermore, he said that both he and his team are strategizing on different ways to cure HIV.
What Does Functionally Closer To Curing HIV Mean
According to Ravindra Gupta and other experts even though the results are encouraging, there are certain aspects of the research that are not adequately understood. It is unclear whether the CCR5 Delta 32 mutation is the sole factor that contributed to the cure of HIV and how it functions is a mystery as well. Other factors like the graft-versus-host disease, a condition in which donor immune cells attack the recipient’s immune cells, has a role to play in the cure is not understood.
Furthermore, how the mutation makes a person immune is not understood, because of these factors, it is too early to state whether this is the best and effective means in curing
How Do Other Scientist View These Results
Other scientists fell that the findings offer greater in site and understanding regarding HIV previously unknown but say that a bone marrow transplant is not the proper solution as the transplant procedure is expensive, risky and above all the chances of a person’s body rejecting the transplant are always there.
