HIV-AIDS Cure News 2017: Researcher Says New Vaccine May Suppress Disease
Five patients with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) who took a vaccine seven months ago are reportedly now virus-free. The report came three weeks after Prof. Maduike Ezeibe of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture said that he had already found a cure to the disease.
The cure was reportedly developed in Spain and was found effective as it allowed HIV patients to thrive without the need to take antiretroviral (ARV) drugs regularly. Taking these drugs is currently the only method used to suppress the fatal disease. While the doctors believe that the vaccine could be a "functional cure," the researchers who tested the vaccine wanted to test it on a large-scale clinical trial.
According to Dr. Beatriz Mothe of the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Spain, the newly discovered vaccine allows the T cells of the patient's body to suppress the virus. "It's the proof of concept that through therapeutic vaccination we can really re-educate our T cells to control the virus. This is the first time that we see this is possible in humans," she said.
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The HIV vaccine administered by Mothe and other researchers was made by Professor Tomas Hanke of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. They conducted the experiment to 13 HIV patients who had taken ARVs in the last three years, six months after being infected with the virus. After getting the vaccine, five of the patients managed to go six to 28 weeks without treatment.
While the vaccine was successful in suppressing the disease, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said it is not true that there is cure for HIV, as claimed by Ezeibe. "No, there is no cure for HIV. It is important that we do not deceive our people. There is no cure. However, treatment is available that allows those infected to live healthy and productive lives," he said to The Guardian.
The doctor said they would not want to give HIV patients false hope by saying that their condition can finally be cured because in reality, the vaccine can only suppress the disease. He said patients who are currently on AVR drugs should not abandon their medications.
Scientists have been trying to discover a cure to HIV for the last three decades.
