British man might be first in the world to be cured of HIV after 'breakthrough' treatment

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: THE INDEPENDENT

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-man-hiv-aids-medical-trial-breakthrough-cured-a7341801.html

by: Charlotte England


A 44-year-old British man may have become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV.

Tests showed the virus had become undetectable in the blood of the previously HIV-positive man, after he was treated with a pioneering new therapy designed to eradicate the virus.

Researchers have cautioned that it is too early to tell if the treatment has really worked but said the man, a social worker, had made "remarkable progress".

The patient was the first of 50 people to complete a trial of the ambitious treatment which launches a two-stage “kick and kill” attack on the virus.

The new therapy is unique in that it tracks down and destroy HIV in every part of the body —including in the dormant cells that evade current treatments.

“This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV,” Mark Samuels of Britain's National Institute for Health Research told The Sunday Times.

”This is a huge challenge and it's still early days, but the progress has been remarkable," he said.

The clinical trials, which are being paid for by the NHS, are the result of a collaboration between doctors and scientists at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and King's College London.

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[Oceander]

A real cure for HIV would be awesome.

[endicom]

If this works then it can probably lead to treatment of some other viral infections.

[LadyLiberty]

If this works then it can probably lead to treatment of some other viral infections.

I'm wondering about the viruses that go dormant after getting chicken pox and later resurface as shingles.

[endicom]

I'm wondering about the viruses that go dormant after getting chicken pox and later resurface as shingles.

There's a vaccine for chickenpox so I'm guessing it's a much different type of virus. As you've guessed, I don't know.