Question
Any news on the cure?
6 July 2011. Related: All topics, Cure, Living with HIV long-term, Newly diagnosed.
I have been reading the internet daily since my diagnosis, i haven’t told anyone and haven’t been to the doctors as yet.
I know when i caught it – in March – i am taking my time to get my head together before making any moves forward. I will go to the hospital in the next couple of weeks – i understand that this is for the long haul and an extra week or two wont really make that much difference.
So much seems to be happening at the moment around a cure – with the human safety trail of stem cell therapy that i think are now about to go into phase 2 trials and the recent success of vaccine research in Texas.
How far are we really from this reaching this as an option for treatment for everyone? How long does it take to study these ideas and if successful get them to people?
I know i am sounding desperate but i hope so much for a cure. It is early days in my diagnosis so i suppose it is predictable really but it would be great to hear from you and have your opinion as to the state of play – now at this moment of the search for a cure. There doesn’t seem to be one website or organisation that has all this information in one place – or that keeps a record of the moves forward – or even steps back.
Any help understanding these things would be wonderful – thank you.
Answer
Thanks for your post. I’m sorry about your recent diagnosis. It sounds like you are taking time to deal with this, but it is very difficult to do this on your own. If you don’t feel comfortable talking with a friend or family member I hope you consider contacting a local HIV support group or your clinic to speak with a health advisor.
Your hopes for a cure are shared by lots of people – and one day science will find an answer to this virus. Some of the research that you mention is exciting and in the last year or two it has been important to see that a cure is back on the research agenda.
In practice, whether the cure comes from eradication or from finding a way to control HIV without the need for drugs, this is likely to be at least ten years away.
So for now, the tremendous advances in treatment will be able to keep most of us alive for decades if necessary until that happens. Treatment may not be ideal, but it is lifesaving and a very good holding strategy until the cure gets here.
Lots of community sites focus on treatment news, including i-Base and aidsmeds.com (which also has great online forums).
Several scientific groups focussing on cure research put this information online.
One is lead by the International AIDS Society at this link.
We included in HTB some summary reports from their workshop last year at this link.
The Treatment Action Group in New York follows this research in their basic science blog, annual pipeline research reports (that i-Base contribute too), and a page of online ‘cure’ resources.
The HIV-reservoir website also focusses on this aspect of science.
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