Do you remember, Babu Wa Loliondo, the infamous Tanzanian traditional herbalist, who minted millions of shillings from people alluding to have found a special medicinal herbal drink that could cure a host of chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS? Turns out it was all a hoax! But, when people are desperate to find a solution to their health problem, they can be lured into anything.
For now, the virus can only be managed through lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART), however the burden of the pill, high cost of treatment, stigma, proves heavy leading many to their early graves. It is for these reasons that scientists are working around the clock, towards getting a cure for HIV, and their efforts look promising – we have two documented patients who have been completely cured of the virus. The route to finding a cure has taken two paths of research studies known as “functional and sterilizing cure.”
The first case of a cure was documented in 2007. This incorporated ‘sterilising cure’ which hopes to eradicate HIV from the body by measurably eliminating cells from latent reservoirs. (Avert, 2019) Medical news (Maria Cohut, Ph.D, 2020) reports that the person popularly known as the Berlin patient received an HIV diagnosis in the 1990s and was put on antiretroviral treatment. However, later on, he also received a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, for which he eventually required a stem cell transplant. Receiving stem cells from this donor, it turned out, not only treated Mr. Brown’s leukemia but also cured the HIV infection. They say his donor had a specific genetic mutation that made him practically immune to HIV.
In a 2012 study, 14 French people living with HIV known as the ‘Visconti cohort’, started taking ART within 10 weeks of infection. After three years of medication, they stopped taking treatment, which would normally result in HIV re-emerging. Remarkably, they maintained low levels of HIV in their systems for an average of seven years before a recurrence of the virus emerged a major setback to the research. (Avert, 2019)
The 2018 ‘Control of HIV After Antiretroviral Medication Pause’ (CHAMP) study yielded similar results – some 13% of those treated in early infection were considered post-treatment controller. This route to cure is termed as ‘functional cure’ because it focuses not on the elimination of HIV from the body, but rather on reducing the virus to a level that is undetectable; where the person no longer needs to take HIV-related medication, nor has any risk of progressing to AIDS or transmitting the virus. (Avert, 2019).
In March 2020, The Lancet reported (Prof Ravindra Kumar Gupta, 2020), a second person has been cured of the virus. The London patient, also received a stem transplant. Following the transplant, and at 30 months after the person ceased antiretroviral therapy, doctors confirmed that the HIV viral load remained undetectable in blood samples. (Maria Cohut, Ph.D, 2020)
Prof. Ravindra Kumar Gupta, from the University of Cambridge in the U.K, the study’s lead author said, “Our finding show that the success of stem cell transplantation as a cure for HIV, first reported 9 years ago in the Berlin patient can be replicated.”
However, Prof. Gupta emphasizes that “It is important to note that this curative treatment is high risk and only used as a last resort for patients with HIV who also have life threatening hematological [blood] malignancies.”
“Therefore, this is not a treatment that would be offered widely to patients with HIV who are on successful antiretroviral treatment,” the researcher goes on to caution.
These are just a few cases that prove scientific research are headed in the right direction, although the roadmap towards a cure has been met with specific challenges because of the unique nature of HIV. The most significant of these challenges is the virus’s ability to hide itself and lay dormant in pockets of healthy immune system cells (CD4+ T cells) that are unrecognized by the immune system. Even if an individual has successfully suppressed their HIV through ARV treatment, the hidden HIV, called the “latent reservoir,” can re-emerge if ARV treatment is stopped. (Richard Dunham, Director of HIV Cure at ViiV Healthcare, 2019) Other challenges sited by researchers include ethical and technical barriers.
Despite these challenges, the few successful trials are a reason to keep the fight going. It is for this reason, that all partners in search for a HIV cure are mounting an all-out effort by investing on more aggressive, collaborative approaches while channeling funds to the most promising areas.
They are unbowed, we are unbowed and all efforts are renewed every day with a hope towards creating a HIV free society. And we will get there.
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