The story of a woman has emerged who has naturally been cured of HIV in an extremely rare occurrence.
Researchers have recently reported the rare occurrence of a woman who has naturally been cured of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) without regular treatment. This will be the second observed instance of a person being cured of the AIDS-causing virus in the world. The woman who was reported infected about 8 years ago when she got diagnosed with the virus no longer has any traces of the virus nor does she show any active signs of the virus in her body.
After infection in 2013, the woman did not start any antiretroviral treatment until 2019 when she got pregnant and started receiving treatment with the drugs tenofovir, emtricitabine, and raltegravir for six months during her second and third trimesters, the researchers reported. She eventually stopped treatment after she delivered a healthy baby before she later got cured of the virus recently.
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In their analysis of the woman’s cells, her samples showed that she had been infected with the virus in the past but that the cells showed no signs of being able to continue replicating as that was the mechanism through which the condition leads to AIDS that is known to be the most advanced level of the infection propagating process.
Although there have been instances of people cured in the past of the disease only through stem cell treatment, the researchers still do not understand how the woman’s body managed to rid itself of the virus. Although they believe her case represents future hope of alternative methods of curing people of the popular virus.
