How HIV Is Being Cured

It has long been understood that HIV is incurable according to the power of modern medical treatments. Despite years of advancement in the field of HIV/AIDS studies, no cure has been found, though treatments have provided hope for those who experience HIV symptoms and who suffer from the disease.

That being said, some HIV patients have been treated successfully to the point where they are considered functionally cured. Let’s look at what that means and how it is being done.

Is Functionally Cured Different from a Real Cure?

The cure here has to be defined properly so that people do not get a sense of false hope. HIV treatment used on a number of patients has diminished the disease to such a point that it is no longer harmful to them. They still have the disease within their bodies in miniscule quantities, so they have not been cured in the sense that the disease is no longer in them.

However, they are cured of the negative effects of the disease.

They will still have HIV in their bodies for the rest of their lives unless some other, new medical treatment comes along to remedy that, but they no longer have to deal with the day-to-day symptoms of this awful disease.

That significant change in their medical status is being hailed as a cure of sorts, though it doesn’t quite fit the medical definition of a cure. Thus, the term functionally cured has to be applied here.

How Were They Treated?

Fourteen adults were treated with an antiviral medication plan that led to their current state of functionally cured. This is identical to the antiviral treatment that HIV medicine has used to help those who suffer from late stages of the HIV disease, but the difference here is that the treatment was administered at a very early stage.

The therapy began at a period in their lives when the disease was nearly impossible to detect, and therein lies the problem. When the disease is treated so early in its life cycle, it can be seemingly beaten into near oblivion. However, it is extremely difficult to determine if someone has HIV at that early and easily treatable stage.

The researchers who conducted these trials determined that early treatment of HIV infection can be very successful, recessing the disease until it has very little chance of coming back and causing harm. The researchers came to the conclusion that about 15% of people who received this kind of early-stage treatment could be treated successfully and see these same kinds of results.

That means that this specific early-stage antiviral treatment is not for everyone. It won’t be successful for everyone who undertakes the treatment, but it could provide a substantial improvement in the quality of life for some. That’s enough to make it well worthwhile to pursue as a course of treatment.

Miracle Baby

A report in 2013 revealed that a baby born with HIV was cured at 2 ½ years of age. The baby was treated with an antiviral regimen shortly after being born. The treatment lasted for about a month, and then about two years later, the baby was classified as cured, but only functionally so.

This was one of the first cases of early antiviral treatment being successful for someone at such a young age with the disease. Previously, bone marrow transplants had provided similar positive results for people who had HIV, so this is a new age in medicine and in the treatment of HIV treatments.

For those not being treated at early stages, the news is not all grim. There is still hope for them, but they are not likely to be considered functionally cured. Their symptoms can be well managed, however, if they take their medication regularly- usually a single pill administered once a day. The symptoms can be mild with that routine treatment so that they can live much longer lives and much healthier, fuller lives than was previously expected for HIV patients.

Medicine has come such a long way for HIV sufferers. The notion that people would have greatly diminished lifespans because of the disease is almost a thing of the past, thanks to effective, modern treatments.