There is no reason not to be optimistic.’Īt the Melbourne conference this July, researchers announced that two Australian patients became HIV-free after receiving stem cells to treat cancer. She concludes, ‘There is plenty of data that are telling us that we can make progress. She doesn’t talk about an ‘HIV cure’, she prefers to talk about ‘permanent remission’ – a condition where the disease cannot develop in the body and cannot infect others. The Mississippi infant was virus-free for a remarkable 27 months.’ She also reasons that better tests are needed to find the virus ‘hiding’ in inner organs, in secret ‘reservoirs’. ![]() Her comment at the conference in the Guardian: ‘What has been most encouraging was that the time the virus stayed under control off treatment, or in remission, was significantly longer than what we have ever witnessed before. What conclusions does Francoise Barré-Sinoussi draw from this new development? She is a Nobel laureate, HIV researcher and co-chair of the Melbourne AIDS 2014 conference that started right after the Lindau meeting. Photo: C.Flemming/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Francoise Barré-Sinoussi this summer in Lindau. Now this approach needs to be adjusted, newborns need to be treated over longer periods of time. This development was a sensation, raising hopes about complete cures for newborns with the help of strong medication. Although her mother discontinued the treatment for unknown reasons, doctors could find no traces of the virus for more than two years. The Mississippi baby had been treated for about 18 months with antiretroviral drugs, after having been infected at birth. What implications does it have for HIV and AIDS Research? This news was surely devastating for her family. ![]() Shortly after it became known that a routine doctor visit revealed HIV antibodies and a low T-cell count in the little girl, so doctors started her again on antiretroviral therapy. The child which was thought to be cured from the virus suffered a relapse – what does this mean for Research?ĭuring this year’s Lindau meeting, Nobel laureate Francoise Barré-Sinoussi could still announce that the Mississippi baby was considered ‘functionally cured’ – standard clinical tests could not detect the virus in her blood.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |