Everyone knows how big of an issue HIV is.
A cure for the HIV virus has never been made; a cure that completely heals the patient and renders their future children immune from the disease as well. Doctors can only give the patients preventative or suppression medicine.
However, an experimental treatment has yielded good results for treating HIV, and it looks promising. Do we finally have a cure for HIV/ Aids?
The Experimental Treatment
Scientists from the UK may be looking at a possible cure for the deadly disease. A 44 year old social worker based in London seems to be cured from the affliction. The patient underwent an experimental trial vaccination for the HIV virus. He was first administered a vaccine to help his immune system detect the infected cells in his body. He was then given Vorinostat, to forcibly activate the infected cells that normally stay hidden from the immune system.
It was then only a matter of time until his immune system got rid of the HIV infected cells in his system, completely ridding him of the disease, theoretically.
Close But not Quite There Yet
That last part is of importance as the researchers stress that there is still a long way to go before they can announce a possible HIV cure to the world. A total of 50 people participated in the experimental trial with only the social worker finishing the trial for now. He will need to wait for several months to be sure that he does not have a trace of HIV left in him. There may also be a chance that the patient’s daily doses of medicine may be showing him as being cured.
If everything is indeed well and good and the patient is cured, he will still need to be tested over a span of 5 years.
These findings are still encouraging, despite all the uncertainty surrounding it. This treatment is certainly a lot simpler and easier than more complex solutions like gene therapy and gene editing. Hopefully the scientists will find a cure and the 44 year old social worker will be the first of many who can live a normal life after being infected by the notoriously dangerous virus.