At the moment, there are around 35 million humans diagnosed with HIV. Ever since the vicious disease first appeared scientists tried to find a cure, but they had little luck since even to this day no cure has been fund.
It now seems we are one step closer to having a cure for HIV. One research group consisting out of scientists from Germany and Denmark claim to be close to finding the cure. The new therapy is called the “Shock and Kill” therapy. It uses specialized antiretroviral drugs (commonly used medication of HIV-infected individuals) in combination with immune boosters in order to target specific HIV cells that are in the process of reproduction.
Scientists relied on the support data from the University of California in San Francisco in the process of coming up with the new therapy. The results should come soon; the therapy already brought positive results during animal tests and now it is expected for the results to be positive during trials on human patients.
Dr. Rowena Johnston, the VP of amfAR stated that I feel a very real sense of optimism based on the evidence that we know a cure can be achieved,” and that “There is a fundamental understanding we have now of the barriers between us and a cure, and how we go about to solving the problems.”
The results could be challenged since the findings of AIDS researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine showed that instead of killing HIV cells, enhancing the immune system may be dangerous for HIV-positive patients.
Janice Clements (a veteran AIDS researcher, and a member of the AIDS research group at the Johns Hopkins University School) said that their report, which got published on December 12, includes cases of inflammation of the brain, allegedly caused by the shock-and-kill therapy. We have to wait for further results to see how really scientists are close to finding an efficient cure for AIDS.