IS A CURE FOR HIV IMMINENT?
It’s been reported that scientists in Denmark believe that there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV “within months”.
According to The Telegraph, Danish researchers are expecting that their clinical trial of 15 HIV positive people will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible.”
They hope that their technique will result in the HI virus being permanently destroyed by the body’s immune system.
It involves releasing the virus from “reservoirs” in DNA cells and exposing it on the surface of these cells where they can be killed by the immune system, after it’s boosted by a “vaccine”.
The process proved to be highly effective in the laboratory but it now remains to be seen if the human trials will show it to be equally effective in a people.
If the study is successful among the 15 patients, it will be expanded to include more people.
Dr. Ole S�gaard, a senior researcher behind the study at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, told The Telegraph: “I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV.
“The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognise the virus and destroy it. This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems,” he said.
Similar techniques are being tested by other researchers in Europe and the US, but the Danish study is believed to be the most advanced.
There are currently about 1.9 million HIV positive people on ARV treatment in South Africa.
Wow. This is exciting news. I suppose that HIV positive people will need to be healthy and fit with a high enough white cell count for their bodies to fight the exposed virus. Question is, are all the viruses hiding in these so called reservoirs exposed or are some remnants remaining somewhere, with the possibility of them coming back even stronger?
To all the HIV positive guys, don’t give up hope, One of these days there will be a cure.