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AIDS Research British researchers are achieving HIV healing
Every year, around one million people worldwide die from AIDS. So far, the disease is not curable, but now there is a glimmer of hope. According to media reports, researchers in the UK could have made the big breakthrough. Thanks to a new treatment approach, an HIV-positive man should be on the verge of healing.
Aids epidemic is expected to be completed by 2030
Currently, nearly 37 million people worldwide are living with HIV. The United Nations has recently set itself an ambitious goal. By 2030, the AIDS epidemic is due to end. In the short term, among other things, the number of new HIV infections will be drastically reduced. Meanwhile, this is also possible thanks to medication. A means to protect against AIDS will also be allowed in the EU in the future.
Researchers in the UK are said to be on the brink of HIV recovery. After treatment with a novel therapy, the HI virus is no longer detectable in the blood of a patient. (Image: angellodeco / fotolia.com) Great progress on the therapies
Therapies have also made great progress in recent years. Only recently did German scientists report their hope that a new approach could make it possible to cure AIDS. Even more hopeful are reports from the UK. There, researchers are about to cure a man with HIV.
Perhaps the first cure of an HIV patient
According to media reports, a British medical team has apparently managed to cure a 44-year-old man of his HIV disease. According to the Independent, the patient has been treated with a novel therapeutic approach that has made the HI virus in his blood undetectable. Although the patient had made "astonishing progress", it was too early to declare the therapy successful.
Detect and destroy viruses
According to the Sunday Times, the man is the first in 50 subjects to complete the experiments of scientists from five of the UK's major universities. Participants include the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and King's College London.
The new approach, which is referred to in the media as a "kick and kill", is aimed at detecting and destroying viruses in the body. The success of the 44-year-old patient was impressive, but it would have to wait several months to be sure. In principle, it is also possible that the virus was only temporarily not found in the body of the patient because of the medication taken in addition to the therapy.
Still far away from an actual therapy
NHS public health director Mark Samuels told the Sunday Times: "This is one of the first serious attempts to cure HIV completely." He continued, "This is a big challenge. We are still at the beginning, but the progress is remarkable. "
Sarah Fidler of Imperial College London also warned against premature success stories, but she was confident: "In the lab, it has worked and there is good evidence that it can also work in humans," said the expert. "But we have to emphasize that we are still far from actual therapy at the moment." (Ad)