Will there ever be a cure for HIV?

There is currently only one person who has been cured of HIV; he was cured via an extremely invasive replacement of his bone marrow. This procedure has only a 30% survival rate and is only performed on leukemia patients who are terminally ill, and therefore is not available for the general public It is unknown when and if another cure for HIV will be discovered, though many groups are focusing their efforts in this direction.

As a part of a long leukemia treatment, Timothy Ray Brown received a stem cell transplant in 2007, which the scientists believe to have also cured the HIV-positive man out of the notorious virus. Now, four years later, the patient remains free of HIV and showed no signs of infection, which makes the researches suggest that Timothy is the first recorded human to be completely cured of AIDS. In the transplant, Timothy received bone marrow, which contains stem cells, from a donor with a very rare mutation.

This mutation basically prevents the HIV from penetrating CD4+ T cells, which are immune cells. When the HIV gets inside these cells, the effectiveness of the immune system is progressively reduced to a state which even low-risk infections might cause death. That’s essentially what acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is about.

This case certainly opened a door for future researches and genetically engineered stem cells for the treatment and cure of the AIDS disease. There are many people with tremendous hopes and dreams, so caution must be used in this subject. Also, Dr. Jerome Zack, an HIV researcher and associate director of UCLA AIDS Institute, said that although it’s possible that Timothy’s body has been cured out of any form of HIV, it is still a possibility that he still has this virus somewhere in the body which has not been analyzed, and also, we can not know for sure if everyone would react the same way.

Zack was not involved in this study. So, Is There a Cure for HIV? While this amazing breakthrough is not yet to officially confirm the statement of a cure for AIDS/HIV found, It really sets a green light and a lot of hope for the 33.3 million people worldwide living with this lethal ailment, according to AVERT (formerly also known as the AIDS Education and Research Trust) estimation.

As of 2009, AVERT estimates around 2.6 million new HIV infections per year and 1.8 million annual deaths due to AIDS. Our modern medicine and genetic research has been trying to find a cure for this virus for a very long time, and for the first time in recorded history, the question “Will there ever be a cure for HIV?” seems to be closer than ever to an end. “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” —William Gibson.

Can’t believe a cure for AIDS was found? I was amazed as well. Share your thoughts below.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.

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