http://news.discovery.com/human/health/baby-cured-aids-130204.htm
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/03/aids-research
On March 3rd, there was a case of a baby that was "functionally cured" of HIV. Functionally cured means that the HIV virus is not totally eradicated, but its presence is reduced to a level such that the body can control it without using drugs. Although researchers and doctors are unsure about how the cure came about, they speculate that it is due to the intensive dosage of the drugs given at birth and the timing of the drugs (given starting less than 30 hours after her birth). With this new "breakthrough" or discovery, there will definitely be a large investments and funding for the research by many more institutions.
4 comments:
I think its great that newborn babies might be able to avoid having to deal with HIV. I'm also interested to know if the children will have any adverse affects from the virus later on in life if their own body is unable to control the virus anymore. Also, I'm interested to know if the progress with babies will be translated into progress with adults that have HIV.
I saw this in the newspapers too. From what I read, this aggressive medication and treatment is really risking. I'm glad it worked out but like previously mentioned in other comments, there may be adverse effects later on in life. In addition, Timothy Ray Brown or better known as the "Berlin Patient," was the first man to thought to be "cured" of HIV. Obviously, these are all great events that are occurring, however, it may be difficult to really research and experiment with patients already with diagnosed with HIV. A lot of proposed treatments require blood, marrow, or stem-cell research. I do believe that the good news will revamp the efforts of finding the cure for HIV. I also am concerned that if we do eventually find a cure, that another form/strand of the virus may develop and be even more difficult to solve or cure.
It is a massive success for the world in the process of curing the century disease. The first baby has received a "functional cure", then there would be high expectations for the second, the third, the fourth child, etc. However, the first priority is still preventing the transmission of the virus from mother to newborn. This would be a more difficult task.
Finally! I believe it is not too presumptuous to say that an official cure for HIV and AIDS is coming in the near future. However I wonder if the cure is going to be privatized by some corporation which may make it inaccessible for the poor.
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