Toddler Cured of HIV

[undercoverbrother]

Interesting. Perhaps there might be a cure for everyone one day.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/03/health...red/index.html

It's a potential game changer in the fight against HIV, and doctors say it happened almost by accident.
A baby with the virus that causes AIDS was given high doses of three antiretroviral drugs within 30 hours of her birth. Doctors knew the mother was HIV positive and administered the drugs in hopes of controlling the virus.
Two years later, there is no evidence of HIV in the child's blood.
The Mississippi girl is the first child to be "functionally cured" of HIV, researchers announced Sunday. They said they believe early intervention with the antiretroviral drugs was key to the outcome.
A "functional cure" is when the presence of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood.

[afc wimbledon]

Crap, time to dump my shares in Trojan!!!

[woob]

Loving the religious people praising God for this. Yeah, it was God. :rollseyes:

[Itse]

Science, F yeah.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its an amazing story as its something that took the doctors by surprise. Hopefully its something that can be replicated, but it sounds like something that depends on early detection of the virus before it gets a hold in the immune system.

If they could replicate it, its an expensive treatment but think of what it could do for the 300,000 babies born each year with the Aids virus

[peter12]

So from what I understand, the baby was on HAART before a diagnosis was even made. Is this replicable or just a really beautiful story?

[Knut]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...cience+News%29

Sad bump.

The HIV is back after two years without treatment.

[combustiblefuel]

Their was also a guy in German that they cured of it as well. They gave him a bone marrow transplant. It turns out Every of hundred nourthern european peoplel have a mutated gene that makes them immune to the virus.

http://www.aidsmap.com/German-resear.../page/2691566/

This guy also is claimed to be the first even tho the German guy has been clean for 10 years.
http://news.msn.com/science-technolo...g-for-research

[Knut]

^ an interesting case for sure and not applicable to everyone unfortunately.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...toward-a-cure/

Second, the risk of dying from the stem cell transplant alone ranges from ~10% to as high as 40%. This is not a risk most would accept given current success controlling HIV infection using antiretroviral drug treatments. Third, tests on Brown’s blood revealed that he was carrying variants of the virus that were capable of infecting white blood cells without relying on the CCR5 protein. No one knows why those viruses never infected the transplanted cells. Finally, Brown experienced neurological and intestinal side effects from the stem cell treatments. These complications led to temporary blindness and memory problems. At one point, Brown was in an induced coma so doctors could deal with his complications. He continues to undergo therapy to recover his balance as well as to restore his normal speaking capabilities.

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by Hesla

^ an interesting case for sure and not applicable to everyone unfortunately.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...toward-a-cure/

I was more inticted with the guy from Germany. He has been clean for over ten years.

[Knut]

There was a recent update on that.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1308413

Although the early initiation of treatment may have long-term benefits for certain patients, a likely explanation for control of viral replication in this patient is genetic background, regardless of intervention. Thus, this case represents a cautionary tale of drawing broad conclusions from a single patient.

Seems like a Genetic predisposition at this point

[combustiblefuel]

Ya I read that one. Its always up to the genes you have. Natural selection at work.