The search for a cure for HIV has been ongoing for a long while , and scientists have carried out so much research in order to find a cure to this disease.
UK scientists and clinicians are working on a ground breaking trial to test a possible cure for HIV infection. They said progress has been made, when a test patient showed no sign of the virus after the treatment.
The research was done by combining standard antiretroviral drugs with a drug that reactivates dormant HIV, and a vaccine that induces the immune system to destroy the infected cells.
Antiretroviral drugs alone are highly effective at stopping the virus from reproducing, but do not eradicate the disease so it must be taken for life.
Britain’s top universities with support from the NHS carried out this research,fifty persons are taking part in the trial and early tests in the first person to complete the treatment show no signs of the virus in his blood.
There is still a long way to go before the treatment can be deemed a success as the virus has previously reemerged in people thought to have been “cured” and the use of antiretroviral drugs means the researchers cannot be sure the HIV has gone. Despite all these, there is optimism over the findings.
Managing Director of the National Institute for Health research office for Clinical research Infrastructure, said “This is one of the serious attempts on a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days, but the progress is remarkable. ”
HIV is able to hide itself from the immune system in dormant cells where highly sophisticated modern testing cannot find it and therefore resist therapy. The treatment endeavors to trick the virus into emerging from its hiding places and then trigger the body’s immune system to recognize it and attack it, an approach that has been called “kick and ball.”
Many people are said to be living with the disease, and are still hoping for a permanent cure to it.