HIV ‘Cure’: New Hope, Or Old News?
Brandon
March 9, 2013
HIV ‘Cure’? New Hope, Or Old News? 2
For decades, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has ravaged through the world, infecting millions of people. Many years have gone by while countless scientists, hematologists, medical doctors and virologists have attempted to formulate a ‘cure’. And in many admirable attempts, they failed. HIV hit the united states in the 1980’s, and it hit with a fury. Recently, an infant is believed to be cured of HIV, using high dosage antiretroviral (ARV) drugs within hours after being born. This paper points out the extraordinary achievement of a potential ‘cure’ for HIV. This close examination of the treatment and proper procedure that was implemented, can possibly point out the very steps that are needed to duplicate this procedure.
HIV ‘Cure’: New hope, Or Old News? 3 On March 3rd, 2013 at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Georgia, The report was made about an infant being potentially ‘cured’ of the HIV virus. The Infant girl in Mississippi, who was born with the HIV virus, shows no signs of the virus in her blood tests. As soon as she was born, she was put on high doses of antiretroviral drugs to help lower her risk of dying from this disease. The mother, who is also infected with HIV, stopped taking the infant girl to the doctor for a total of fifteen months, until social workers found her and brought her back. This, in turn, lead to Dr. Gay finding no trace of the virus in her bloodstream. The child is now 2.5 years of age, and still turns up negative for HIV, although doctors plan to continue testing.
HIV ‘Cure’: New Hope, Or Old News? 4
There is only one other documented case of a possible ‘curing’ of the HIV virus. Timothy Ray Brown
References: www.healthmap.org/ news/hiv-cure-mississippi-3813 “The Disease Daily” Published March 8, 2013 by Lauren Edmundson www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22713688/baby-cured-very-early-treatment “Baby’s HIV cured with very early treatment.” By Steenhuysen, Reuters Published: 03/04/2013 10:41:44 am Updated: 03/04/2013 01:51:28 pm