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    HIV 'may not be curable'

    Posted on 15/02/2008

    The virus that causes AIDS 'hides' from even the most advanced drugs, a US study has found.

    And in patients where antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) has almost removed HIV from the blood, the virus remains in other tissues where it can infect immune cells.

    Research by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases examined eight HIV patients who had received effective ART. It found that, although all eight were healthy and had undetectable levels of the virus in their blood, biopsies of their gut lymphoid tissue showed the virus was still present.

    However, Professor David Baltimore, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said that scientists should not give up hope of finding a vaccine. 'Our lack of success may be understandable but it is not acceptable,' he said.

    Addressing the annual meeting of the AAAS, Professor Baltimore added: 'To control HIV... the scientific community has to beat out nature, do something that nature, with its advantage of four billion years of evolution, has not been able to do.'

    Lisa Power, head of policy for charity the Terrence Higgins Trust agreed, telling Health-on-Line News: 'We don't want people to give up looking for a vaccine – we think it's very important – but we do want people to also focus on the here and now, and not hope for a miracle tomorrow.'

    'Realistically, currently the only things that prevent onward transmission are safer sex, and testing and treatment,' she added.



    Category: Healthcare


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