About a week and a half ago, the news broke that a team of doctors from Mississippi had succeeded in using a cocktail of drugs in order to cure an infant born with HIV. Recent news says that the method employed by these physicians might also work on grownups.
Thus, it is being said that, thanks to their being administered antiretroviral drugs between 35 days and 10 weeks after their contracting HIV, a total of 14 adults can now keep the virus in check with the help of their bodies’ natural defense systems alone.
The researchers in charge of keeping a close eye on these 14 patients (i.e. 4 women and 10 men) explain that, despite the fact that investigations have shown that their blood continues to have traces of HIV in it, the fact remains that their bodies seem capable of blocking the virus without receiving any additional help from drugs.
New Scientist reports that these 14 adults were part and parcel of a study group made up of 70 individuals, all of whom had HIV in their systems and who were given their first doses of antiretroviral drugs within said time frame.
Of these 70 patients, 56 experienced the virus’ making a comeback once they stopped taking their antiretroviral drugs. However, the remainder 14 somehow managed to avoid a relapse.
The same source informs us that these 14 adults had taken the antiretroviral drugs for a period of roughly 3 years prior to their choosing to no longer use them.
By the looks of it, each of these patients have now been off HIV treatment for an average of 7 years, yet none of them has been found to have relapsed.
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