HIV is one of
the most dreaded diseases in the world and it is not difficult to see why this
disease is so scary.
You only have
to see the poignant progression that this disease follows, leading to AIDS in
some cases and leaving the patient, a debilitated mass of bony flesh.
So, how
comforting would it be to many who are currently battling this disease to know
that there is actually a cure, and there has been one since as far back as
2008.
There is a
saying that goes What you don't know doesn't kill you; but in the case of HIV,
what you didn't know was actually killing you. Silently.
HIV works by
attaching itself to a protein called CCR5 in the patient's cells and
replication continues until the body is ravaged by the disease. There are
people who have a genetic mutation that makes them lack this CCR5. No CCR5, no
protein for HIV to latch on to, so such people are immune to the disease and
the cure of this disease lies with these people.
About 1% of
the Caucasian population have this trait, hence the immunity.
There is a man
called Timothy Ray Brown who had HIV in the mid-nineties and lived with the
virus for 11 years till 2006. He had been managing his HIV albeit not too
successfully but managing it the same till fate dealt another blow on him in
2006; he had developed a form of cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia.
His doctors
decided to give him a bone marrow transplant for the leukemia and probably
thought that since they would be giving him the transplant, they might as well
get him a donor from the 1% of people that are resistant to HIV, which was what
they did.
After the
transplant, he was cured of the leukemia AND the HIV. To date, he has been free
of HIV completely and he even set up a foundation to help with the cure for
HIV.
The cure for
HIV, though still in research would obviously not be too far from this.
Currently, due
to the limitations of science, the bone marrow transplant is not advised unless
it is a life or death situation due to the risks involved in bone marrow
transplant.
Science is
evolving everyday and what could not be done, say, 10 years ago can now be done
and even the bone marrow transplant can be carried out without the intrusive
bone marrow operation. What is needed can now be obtained from the blood of the
donor.
This gives
hope that those living with HIV would soon heave a sigh of relief. People with
HIV can talk to their doctors about this option and if it would be right for
them. Even if it isn't, the eureka moment cannot be too far on the horizon.
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