A new French study may have a breakthrough in controlling HIV infection for several years without using antiviral drug treatment, according to The New York Times.
The study included 14 adults who were diagnosed with the HIV infection and started an early treatment. Few people stopped the treatment within a year after being involved in a study to see if discontinuing medication for the infection could have any impact and some people stopped on their own. French researchers were surprised to see that the participants were able to control their infection for several years without any medication after they took antiviral drugs for a year, says the report.
This study gives a ray of hope to people with HIV that there may be other ways to fight the infection. Almost two weeks ago, a baby born with the virus that causes HIV was cured in Mississippi. Scientists have come a long way since the infection had no known cure.
Researchers noted a common factor in these cases, which is initiating an early treatment for the infection that does not happen always. Many people don't realize for months and years after being infected by HIV while some people tend to delay the treatment due to the expenses and side effects involved.
The reason the participants involved in this study were diagnosed early and treatment was initiated soon after was because of the strong symptoms of HIV. The benefit of the functional cure can help people in ways to live a healthy life without medication despite the presence of the virus in their bodies, which will be at low levels, said Asier Sáez-Cirión, the lead author of the study.
"These people are not cured, but they have some advantages that would be good to understand," said Dr. Myron S. Cohen of the University of North Carolina.
Although the study has shown promising results among the participants, but it does not give enough proof to suggest people to stop medication because the study was limited to people who initiated an early treatment.
"We and others have difficulty identifying and treating such adults so early after infection," said Dr. Douglas D. Richman, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Sáez-Cirión noted that patients underwent therapy for a period from one to seven and a half years and the treatment was stopped for nearly four to ten years. During the period when medication was stopped, patients' reports showed viral blood levels below 50 copies per milliliter, which is considered undetectable in normal circumstances.
Researchers also noted that less than a percent of infected people have the ability to control HIV without any medication and are called "elite controllers". They said the patients in the study were not elite controllers because they showed strong symptoms of the infection initially and had high viral blood levels since the beginning, which is unlikely in elite controllers.
The study is published in the current issue of journal PLOS Pathogens.
