Our bodies are the most complex machines, capable of so much more than we can ever imagine.
An Argentinian woman is reportedly HIV free after her body cured itself of the virus.
The 30-year-old woman appears to have become the second documented person whose body may have eliminated HIV on its own, the report says.
According to The Washington Post, scans of more than one billion of the woman’s cells detected no viable virus, even though for most of the time she was not undergoing antiretroviral therapy meant to keep the virus from replicating.
According to the study published on Monday, 15 November in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, the Argentine woman joins Loreen Willenberg, the other woman whose immune system is known to have eradicated HIV. Willenberg, of Northern California, may have been the first person to have been cured without a bone-marrow transplant or medication.
The report states that the virus has been eliminated in three people who received stem cell transplants to treat their cancer. But transplants are dangerous and frequently fraught with complications.
“What happened is unique. It’s not that she’s controlling the virus, which we do see, but that there’s no virus there, which is quite different.” said Steven Deeks, an HIV researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
Scientists are still looking for a cure for HIV through four main branches of research and one of them is activating the body’s immune response to the virus, gene therapy, “shock-and-kill” attempts to force the virus from cells so the immune system can try to eradicate it, and “block-and-lock” efforts to keep the virus lodged in cells so it can’t replicate.
-daily sun
In other news – No vaccine, no job – Muvhango actors given an ultimatum
Muvhango cast and crew have been given an ultimatum by the soapie creator Duma Ndlovu to vaccinate or lose their contracts. Ndlovu threw down the gauntlet to actors and technical staff during a meeting to discuss austerity measures to curb company costs in the new financial season and to minimize the spread of Covid-19.
The actors, who have been at home as the producers and the SABC were negotiating new contracts, will resume their shooting schedule next month. Learn More
