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Here is a good news on HIV treatment. It has so happened that a child diagnosed with HIV appears to be cured of it after just a year of treatment and living a drug free life after wards upto eight and a half years. The infant had contracted the HIV virus from its mother and went treatment for 40 continuous to suppress the virus. After that the child was monitored consistently to check for relapse, if any. But, to the surprise of the doctors, even now after almost 8.5 years without drugs, the child hasn’t shown any signs of relapse.
The child is of South African origin. As of now the child is 10 years old and is not taking any drugs. Apparently, patients with HIV need to use anti-retroviral (ART or ARV) drugs all their life once diagnosed. Also known as elite controllers, if these drugs are stopped abruptly, the virus usually comes back roaring within just a few weeks.
This is one of the rare cases and there have been a few similar cases earlier. Well, as per experts, it is a ray of hope wherein there is a less possibility of relapse if the treatment is started immediately after the diagnosis of HIV. Some case studies in France include almost 30 people who had undergone ARVs for 3 years continuously and stopped treatment for various reasons theron. The HIV virus had remained undetected in these people for an average of 7 years without treatment. On the flip side, there was this case of an HIV patient who underwent treatment within 10 days of being infected with it. The treatment spread over a period of 34 weeks. After that, a massive sampling of his blood, spinal fluid, bone marrow, rectum and some more parts in the body was done, but the virus was not detected. However, once the blood sample of his was injected into a humanized mouse, it did resurface. As it was not detected, the treatment was discontinued, but the virus relapsed within 7 months.
Nevertheless, experts say that the case of non detection of HIV in the 10 year old South African is one of the rarest of cases yet, it does pave the way to research on not just long term remission of the virus in individuals who begin treatment immediately after detection but in investigating the effects of treatment on infants immediately after their birth as a part of sustained virological control of HIV.
** source from Internet **
