News about possible "functional" cures for the HIV/AIDS virus has been coming through the pipe lately. Even we at iTechPost wrote of the miracle baby who was "cured" of HIV in Mississippi earlier this year.
We also wrote about Sangamo's work in finding a functional cure that may be available sooner rather than later.
Last week, CBS News reported on the fact that 14 patients with HIV were cured thanks to having been treated early on in their diagnosis.
What does this all mean, then? Are we seeing the end of HIV/AIDS on the horizon after decades of deaths and despair over a disease that has taken the lives of those in all walks of life across the globe?
When asked if a cure is yet here, The Atlantic contributor Tim Lahey, MD gave a "resounding 'not yet.' "
"Every year, over 2.5 million people join the 34 million who are already infected with HIV," Lahey says. "Still only a fraction have access anti-HIV drugs. An HIV vaccine is years off."
Although Lahey agrees that it would be a "huge deal" if these success stories we've been hearing about were becoming more commonplace, but the truth remains that these cases are "highly unusual."
"All were treated very early with powerful anti-HIV regimens that most patients with HIV do not start until years after infection," Lahey says. "Even when we diagnose HIV early — itself a difficult task — many HIV-positive patients do not begin treatment for years after infection. That is in part because of the great cost of HIV treatment."
Lahey reminds us that the same French researchers looking into the 14 patients whose HIV abated also said that "only 15% of patients treated early are likely to see the same benign-appearing clinical course that they reported."
These reports of miraculous cures are also from those cases in which patients have yet to be followed for a long duration of time. Lahey says it's not impossible for the HIV virus to appear again in those who have been observed.
"Since the average untreated HIV patient develops AIDS within 120 months, these studies are interesting but can't really confirm permanent protection from AIDS," Lahey says. "Might the virus come surging back after a short-lived hiatus? It's possible."
On top of all of this, Lahey points to numerous cases of what is referred to as "long-term nonprogressors," who are people that have an uncanny knack for warding off the ill effects of HIV in their systems due to various biological factors. Lahey is saying that the observations made about these alleged "functional cures" might not be news at all: We may have merely found folks whose bodies react differently to HIV exposure than others.
Most importantly, Lahey notes that of the 15 patients who have been observed allegedly beating the HIV virus, only one — the Mississippi baby — has exhibited no evidence of detectable HIV in its system. The 14 other patients still exhibit "low levels of detectable HIV" after treatment was stopped, meaning that for these patients, the HIV virus is merely now "under control."
"That's a far cry from cured," Lahey concludes.
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