Bye Bye HIV

In a very rare case, an anonymous woman from Argentina has become only the second person known to ever show no detectable traces of an HIV infection without receiving a stem cell transplantation treatment to cure it.

The patient, first diagnosed with HIV-1 in 2013, showed no sign of active viral infection in her body, nor any evidence of HIV-1-associated disease after eight years of follow-up checks and a total of 10 commercial viral load tests. During the patient's follow-up after her initial March 2013 diagnosis, she only took antiretroviral drugs (ART) for one point (when she was pregnant in between 2019–2020) and delivered a HIV-1 negative baby.

An international team of researchers explain in a new study, led by co-first authors Gabriela Turk and Kyra Seager say, "In a small subgroup of persons living with HIV-1 who are frequently termed 'elite controllers' or 'natural suppressors', HIV-1 plasma viremia remains durably undetectable by commercial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays in the absence of antiretroviral therapy".

Despite the remarkable and hugely promising leads these case studies demonstrate in terms of HIV research, however, the scientists are very careful to distinguish what they are (and are not) claiming here. Does this mean that the patient has developed a sterilizing cure during natural infection?  As the researchers said, “We believe this is likely, but it cannot be proved”.

Despite not being able to call it a ‘definitive proof’ we are all looking for, it still is a huge step forward in the world of research for HIV treatment/cure.