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CLMN | HIV cure found. Or has it?

05/03/2013

There’s a huge media frenzy this week due to an announcement made this past Sunday regarding a medical breakthrough. From the news, you’ll learn that a baby has been cured from HIV.

If you just skim the articles, or if you just read the headlines, then you should be really excited about this. However, the complications lie in the details. One of the most paramount reasons why I normally avoid mainstream news casts, is the fact that, in order to attract readers, they more often than not jumble facts and askew data. This is also the case for the so-called medical breakthrough.

See, the thing is the child was not cured. Not in the medical sense, anyway. Cured means that all traces of the virus have been eradicated. In this case, the HIV virus is just in remission, meaning that the virus is in a non-functional state. The reports say the baby has been off the drugs for about one year (she’s 2 and a half years old right now), and it might be too early to ascertain a cure has been found. Then again, this is not a cure in the strict meaning it evokes on us.

The baby was administered the same drugs that have circulated for years now, just in stronger doses and at a very, VERY early stage (administration started 30 hours after birth). The virus is still there, it’s just below the detectable threshold by today’s equipment. Thus, while this does not precisely translate in a way to treat or cure HIV in adults, or after infection not stemming from birth, it is still one of the greatest advances in the 32-year long war against this deadly virus.CLMN | HIV cure found. Or has it?

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