The second-known person to naturally cure their HIVinfection has been discovered by scientists in Argentina.
Apart from other novel findings, the discovery brings thepossibility of a cure closer for the 38 million people living with HIVglobally.?
According to Mail Online, a group of Harvard-basedscientists announced the discovery at a major international meeting of HIVexperts.
Known only as the 'Esperanza patient', she is the secondperson to be found to have no intact virus. The first ¡ª Loreen Willenberg, 67,from San Francisco ¡ª was found in August.
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Loreen Willenberg was part of a group of elite controllerswhose HIV appears to be locked away where it can¡¯t produce a new virus.??
'Finding one patient with this natural ability forfunctional cure [no virus that can reproduce] is good, but finding two means somuch more,' said Dr Natalia Laufer, the patient's doctor and an HIV researcherin Buenos Aires, according to The Times.?
'It means there must be more people like this out there,'she said. 'This is a significant leap forward in the world of HIV cureresearch. Upon diagnosis, her tests surprised us all.'
Reports state that ¡ª the Esperanza Patient and Willenberg ¡ªare extreme examples of a rare group of people known as elite controllers, whohave never taken antiretroviral therapy to fight the virus, and who show nosigns of the virus in their blood.
Antiretroviral therapy can keep HIV replication suppressed,the virus inserts its genetic material into the chromosomes of human cells,making it very difficult to eradicate. HIV can lie dormant in a reservoir ofresting immune cells indefinitely, but when antiretrovirals are stopped and thecells become activated, they can start churning out new virus.?
The finding of the Argentinian woman, Professor Yu said, andthe understanding of how the bodies of elite patients deal with the virus'opens a door to a potential cure', she said.
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?The work announced at the Conference on Retroviruses andOpportunistic Infections provides the most convincing evidence to date thatscientists are making significant progress towards a cure for HIV.