25 replies to this topic

[Queen in the North]

Andami, on 04 March 2013 - 11:08 PM, said:

Didn't this happen last year with a man who underwent chemo and stim cells for his cancer which inadvertently cured his HIV? If so, this isn't the world's first.

Yes, but he went through procedures which were last ditch methods to save his life due to his leukaemia. It's risky to have a transplant from a totally unrelated donor (as he had one from someone who was genetically immune to HIV), and you would never do it unless it was to save your life.

The infant here has supposedly been cured through this three drug infusion shortly after birth, which if correct is a much more widely applicable way of 'curing' HIV than bone marrow transplants.

So, it's not a world first, but it is the world's first infant 'cured', which possibly offers a more practical, less dangerous cure. But there are a lot of questions which need answering.

Edited by Queen in the North, 05 March 2013 - 12:19 AM.

[Mike D boy]

The global AIDS pandemic should come to an end: we need to replicate the "cure" given to the infant to everyone with HIV, but doctors aren't entirely clear to eradicate the HIV virus successfully, as two cases of people no longer having HIV is a charm.

According to what I read on the Lysol bottles, the chemicals in that cleaning spray can stop the spread of HIV on surfaces (HIV isn't contagious and not picked up by others in contact with the stained surface), then I realized "what if we use a possibly safe chemical from the spray in those with HIV to destroy the virus?" We always hope to fight diseases and save lives whether we can, and there's hope arisen from the accidental cure of that 2-year old child is a blessing in disguise.

[Lava_Lady]

Finally, some good news...  Good for you little one. Don't waste it.

[Rocketgirl]

moonshadow60, on 04 March 2013 - 10:19 PM, said:

I just hope this child is well and truly healed from HIV, and I hope is not hounded for life by scientists and doctors looking for bits and pieces of its body for scientific purposes, which could be the case.

That child is going to end up being a science experiment. Doctors are going to want to take a closer look to see how this happened. I'm glad that baby is HIV free, but at the same that child is going to be under watch by doctors.

[puckmomma]

I hope there is a cure in the works, I'm just wondering what happens if they do this to every HIV infant and then down the road 20yrs it turns out very badly.

My fingers are crossed and I do hope for the best. These little babies need a chance and my heart goes out to them and their families.

[Copasetic]

This isn't applicable to people with long standing HIV infections. The doctors here basically used HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) which calls for the use of 3 drugs--Usually like 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) or 2 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) paired with a protease inhibitor.

The drugs the doctors used are the same drugs used in thousands of other patients. The difference here, is in the child HIV hadn't had a chance to establish a latent infection yet. Most people are familiar with the fact that HIV infects CD4 cells, but it also infects various other types of white blood cells with CCR5  and other receptors--like macrophages. The virus is able to lie dormant in these cells for the remainder of the hosts life (as some of these cells will last the rest of the hosts life) and is unaffected by antiretrovirals because the virus is not actively replicating.

So someone like Magic Johnson, who's viral load has been below the level of detection for years, still needs to continue HAART because it is suppressing any latent virus's ability to hop from latent cells to CD4 cells and become active again.

Since in this child latency hadn't been established yet, high doses of HAART was able to knock down the virus enough that the immune system was able to "clean" the virus (or likely clean the virus). The child should probably be retested every so often to see if she is ELISA positive for whatever HIV group her mother had.

The problem with adult HIV infections is in the beginning there are normally no symptoms to make one think they are HIV+ or the symptoms are very mild and "cold" like. The virus can have an incredibly long incubation period, sometimes years in some individuals. So when people are found to be HIV+ the virus has normally run rampant through their body and established latency in areas and cells (like the brain, lymph nodes, macrophages etc).

Edited by Copasetic, 05 March 2013 - 07:36 PM.

[Copasetic]

puckmomma, on 05 March 2013 - 06:58 PM, said:

I hope there is a cure in the works, I'm just wondering what happens if they do this to every HIV infant and then down the road 20yrs it turns out very badly.

My fingers are crossed and I do hope for the best. These little babies need a chance and my heart goes out to them and their families.

Usually a child who's mother in HIV+ is on antiretrovirals. So long as her viral load is low the chance the child will be born HIV+ is actually pretty low. To further lower the chance of mother-child transmission we normally deliver the baby via c-section. Passage through the birth canal exposes the baby to a lot more blood and body fluid than by section.

I've actually got to scrub in on a lot of HIV+ mother deliveries via c-section and the babies in those all turned out HIV-

[nonhivaids]

I was once HIV+. I now remain HIV-.  I still have AIDS (though I am ICD-coded "C.F.S." since HIV+ is a prerequisite for an "AIDS" diagnosis in the USA).

"NON HIV AIDS" is the name of my illness. You can google it.

My case goes up through the White House, NIH, CDC, WHO, to the United Nations. I recently testified on a federal-level in Washington, DC, and have been published 12 times on 4 continents.

http://www.ukprogres...ticle20891.html

[Andromedan Starseed 333]

doctors could play "hero"all they want and could pretend to have cured HIV but I know the truth about That and know there are safe nature made cures and remedies by mother nature herself!!!

[Lex540]

not true i will find the cure for AIDS

[Thurnis Hayley]

They neglect to inform the reader that the baby was cured using bee venom. Unless this is a different baby and all kinds of babies are being cured of HIV.