- HIV infection defeated: A patient from Argentina gets well in a “natural” way
- Only two such HIV cases worldwide: Doctors draw knowledge for further research
- Diagnosis of the 30-year-olds proves: healing too without stem cell transplant possible
A few days ago an international team of scientists wrote in the journal “Annals of Internal Medicine“published an article that could mean a big step in the fight against the immunodeficiency virus HIV. In their study, the researchers report on a 30-year-old Argentinian whose body completely fought the virus in a natural way.
Argentinian woman cured of HIV “naturally”
The woman from the Argentine city of Esperanza was diagnosed with HIV for the first time in March 2013. She did not begin antiretroviral treatment until 2019. When she became pregnant, she had to undergo six months of medication. After giving birth to a healthy, HIV-negative baby in March 2020, she was able to discontinue therapy. The international research team has been accompanying the Argentine with investigations into the virus since 2017, like the website “Stat” reported.
Current HIV research suggests that if left untreated, the virus tends to lead to serious illnesses. However, several useful treatments have been explored over the past few decades. This means that many people can live with the virus for a long time and for the most part carefree. Antiretroviral therapy is often carried out for this, which prevents the virus from multiplying. The virus can be kept under control with this therapy, but the patients are not completely cured.
Only twice in history have doctors actually “cured” HIV. The so-called “Berlin patient” in 2009 and the “London patient” in 2019 were cured by means of a bone marrow transplant. While these cases showed that a cure is possible, these types of transplants are expensive and very dangerous. In addition, donors who have a rare genetic mutation that make cells resistant to the HI virus are difficult to find.
“Elite controller” as a secret weapon against HIV
In addition to the Argentine, there is only one known case in which the patient was able to fight HIV naturally and without treatment. 67-year-old Loreen Willenberg from the United States had kept the virus under control for three decades without the use of antiretroviral drugs. In 2020, researchers did not find a single intact virus in more than 1.5 billion of their cells.
Now on Amazon: HIV test recommended by German AIDS Help
Even in the 30-year-old Argentinean, no intact HIV genomes could be detected in a total of 1.188 billion blood cells and 503 million sequenced tissue cells. Both patients are also referred to as “elite controllers” in medical circles. This is the name of a small subgroup of HIV patients in whom the immune system is strong enough to suppress the virus naturally. “Elite controllers” are not only considered to be people in whom HIV is no longer detectable. Affected people who have a very low viral load, although no therapy is being carried out, also apply to this category.
Even if no intact HI viruses could be detected in the Argentine woman, it cannot be definitively determined whether the HIV has completely disappeared from her body, explains the spokesman for the German Aids Aid Holger Wicht im RTL interview. There is currently no test procedure that can be used to determine whether there is really no HIV in the body at all. However, the longer the tests cannot detect a virus that is capable of replicating, the more likely it is that the infection is cured.
Future treatment methods could make the lives of millions of people easier
As soon as researchers understand the immune mechanisms that make the bodies of the “elite controllers” special, they can use them to develop drugs, gene therapies or other one-off treatments. This will save millions of people from taking antiretroviral drugs for life. The Argentine, who is considered cured, is expecting her second child in the coming year.
In line with this topic: The spread of HIV is the deadliest pandemic in recent times with almost 36 million deaths – you can find out here which epidemics have led to even higher deaths in the past two centuries.
* Note: In the editorial team, we are always on the lookout for great offers and useful products for our readers – for things that inspire us and bargains that are too good to be ignored. The links provided in this article and marked with a shopping cart symbol or an asterisk are so-called affiliate links / advertising links. If you click on one of these links and buy from them, we receive a commission from the dealer. This does not change the price for you. Our editorial reporting is fundamentally independent of the existence or the amount of a commission.