Shock and awe of HIV

Shock and awe of HIV

The HIV epidemic has meant that some doctors have become more creative in their approaches to combat the disease. In addition to the usual prevention and treatment approach, something new has developed as a strategy for healing HIV, thanks to the Berlin patient. The history of the Berlin patient is remarkable. A HIV-positive American living in Germany receives a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia, in which not only leukemia but also the HIV was treated. In fact, after two successful transplants, the HIV was completely exterminated from its system. To date, the Berlin patient is the only person who has ever been healed by an HIV infection.

While something as complex and risky as a bone marrow transplantation for the millions of people with HIV is not practical worldwide, the interest that aroused the HIV research community seriously in the search for a cure.

At this point, a functional healing is a more realistic goal. Functional healing is achieved when the virus load is reduced to such an extent that the immune system can easily master it and keep it oppressed. The search for functional healing will reduce the dependence on medication of antiretroviral therapy (ART) or make it completely superfluous. Various other types of "healings" have been tried over the years, but none of them came close to eradding HIV. The bone marrow transplant "Berlin patient" worked because the bone marrow came from a donor that was genetically resistant to HIV - a very rare genetic mutation.

The hair approach used a highly active antiretroviral therapy (hair) to reduce the hi virus in the bloodstream to no longer detectable values, and was considered the first step on the way to a healing, but a big mistake proved to be wrong. While Haart effectively fought the active virus, it did not kill the latent virus that is in the cells. Here the "Shock and Awe" approach comes into play. Anti-latency drugs are introduced into the system to force the HIV virus to activate and try replication. As soon as the outdoor virus is outdoors, the infected cells die, while Haart protects not yet infected cells.

on the "Shock and Awe" approach has to be worked even more to see if it can be effective in the long term against HIV; Until then, the Berlin patient is not satisfied with being the only person healed by HIV. Even he wants more money to be invested in research for HIV healing. In view of the progress in treatments and therapies for HIV-positive patients, the scientific community is of the opinion that this is only a matter of time.

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This article arises from an idea, found somewhere in the world in an international article. Translated and newly written.