Irish Examiner view: From treatment to cure for Aids

American patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV

Fri, 25 Feb, 2022 - 07:15

For decades, people with HIV have been treated with a cocktail of drugs to prevent them from developing Aids, still a dangerous and often fatal condition.

The success of various treatments shifted the focus away from finding a cure for the virus to treating it as a chronic condition to be managed.

The tide may be about to turn, though, as an American patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes Aids.

“This tells us or confirms that a cure is possible, and scientists need to keep working to find a cure,” Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International Aids Society, said.

The success with one dangerous virus should, hopefully, encourage medical scientists to find a cure for another.

The Covid pandemic has prompted possibly the largest and fastest mobilisation of the global scientific community we have ever witnessed.

Vaccines have proven to be very effective against Covid-19 and hospital treatment has saved lives, but a cure for the disease would be far more reassuring and long-lasting.

Even a mild dose of Covid can have long-lasting effects, with vertigo, confusion, heart palpitations, and ‘brain fog’ among them.