Ground-breaking Development: 2-year-old Baby Cured from HIV/AIDS Infection

It has now been more than three decades since the world came to know about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. About 30 million people have fallen prey to this killer disease and 7,000 people a day are infected with HIV around the world.

2-year-old Baby Cured from HIV/AIDS Infection

Most recently; a potentially ground-breaking case could offer insights on how to eradicate HIV infection in its youngest victims.

Two-and-a-half year old baby girl, who was born with HIV, has been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, researchers say. The Mississippi girl has been off HIV drugs for about a year with no signs of infection.

Although there is an important technical tone: researchers insist on calling it a “functional cure” rather than a complete cure; but still the development is a bright ray of hope that could help improve treatment of babies infected at birth.

 During the medical conference at Atlanta, doctors say that the girl has only trace amounts of HIV in her bloodstream and has been able to keep the virus that causes AIDS in check without the help of medication.

Further testing yet to be done to establish that whether the treatment would have the same effect on other children or this case has some exceptions; but undoubtedly it could transform the way high-risk babies are treated and possibly lead to a cure for children with HIV, which causes AIDS.

"This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," said Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.

Attempting to replicate the results in other HIV-positive infants is "our next step," said Dr. Persaud further, who described the Mississippi patient at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. She and others are to make a formal presentation during the conference's scientific program later today (Monday).

The only fully cured AIDS patient recognized worldwide is the so-called “Berlin patient,” American Timothy Brown. He is considered cured of HIV and leukemia five years after receiving bone marrow transplants from a rare donor naturally resistant to HIV. The marrow transplant was aimed at treating his leukemia.

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Timothy Ray Brown, The Berlin Patient, HIV, AIDS, HIV Baby, HIV Girl Cured, Deborah Persaud, Mississippi girl, HIV News

FDA approved OraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit from OraSure to test HIV infection at home

The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit has been approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on Tuesday that will provide Americans the facility to test, in the privacy of their own homes, whether they are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

FDA approved OraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit from OraSure to test HIV infection at home

The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit, from OraSure Technologies of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), is one of the first of its kind ‘over the counter’ HIV test kit which got approval from FDA. The kit is an over the counter version of a test used by trained technicians in clinical settings that the FDA approved in 2004, but the kit is not as dependable as getting tested by a skilled clinical technician.

The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test discovers the existence of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and type 2 (HIV-2).

The one who wants to test has to take an oral swab, and place it in a specially prepared vial that comes with the kit. The test result is ready in 20 to 40 minutes.

As mentioned earlier that kit is not as dependable as a clinical test, therefore, a positive outcome doesn’t essentially mean that the user is absolutely infected with HIV, but that he/she should then go and get himself/herself tested in a medical setting to verify the result.

In the same way, a negative result doesn’t essentially signify that the user is certainly not infected: particularly if he/she may have picked up the virus in the previous three months.

Based on clinical studies, the kit is expected to show one false positive out of every 50,000 results and one false negative out of every 12 results.

Report Tgas: HIV test, OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, OraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit, FDA, OraSure, Food and Drug Administration, USA, HIV, AIDS

Gilead Sciences' Truvada: Promises to prevent HIV/AIDS infection

There’s certainly very good news for the humanity as prevention drug has been emerged for one of the most deadly disease, HIV or AIDS – a monster eating thousands of lives every year around the globe.  

Gilead Sciences' Truvada: Promises to prevent HIV/AIDS infection

According to details; the advisory team of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has endorsed on Thursday the first drug, named as Truvada, shown to prevent HIV infection – the virus responsible of causing AIDS. Although FDA is not bound to follow the advisory team’s decision, but in normal circumstances it does. FDA’s final decision is expected in the mid of next month. 

The FDA advisory team recommended approval of the daily pill Truvada for healthy people who are at high risk of contracting HIV, including gay and bisexual men and heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner. 

Even though the Truvada got an important endorsement; but the FDA team has some reservations about the drug, like:

·         Whether Truvada might lead to the reduced use of condoms, the most dependable protection against HIV,

·         The effectiveness of Truvada in women, who have shown much lower rates of protection in studies.

Truvada first came in spotlight three years ago, back in 2010, when government researchers proved that the drug could stop people from contracting HIV. 

The researches kept on studying the effect of the drug and after three years they reached the points where they conclude that daily doses decrease the risk of infection in healthy gay and bisexual men by 42%, when accompanied by condoms and counseling. 

Last year another study was conducted  which fetched even better results concluding that Truvada reduced infection by 75% in heterosexual couples in which one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not.

Report Tags: HIV, AIDS, HIV Infection, Truvada, Gilead Sciences, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, USA, Health, AIDS Drug, AIDS prevention,

SOURCE:

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-fda-hiv-20120511,0,5295464.story

Timothy Ray Brown: The Berlin Patient - First Man in History Cured of HIV/AIDS - - Watch the Video

Timothy Ray Brown: The Berlin Patient - First Man in History Cured of HIV/AIDS

SAN FRANCISCO — It has been now three decades since the world came to know about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. About 30 million people have fallen prey to this killer disease and 7,000 people a day are infected with HIV around the world.

But now a ray of hope has emerged from almost nowhere for the infected patients of HIV.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as ‘Berlin Patient’, resident of the Bay Area may be the first person ever cured of the deadly disease AIDS, the result of the discovery of an apparent HIV immunity gene.

The 45-year-old Brown tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but has now entered scientific journals as the first man in world history to have that HIV virus completely eliminated from his body in what doctors call a "functional cure."

Brown talked to CBS Channels. Just watch the video for more information.

“Berlin patient”: Timothy Ray Brown - - A Ray of Hope For HIV/AIDS Patients

Doctors announce that one HIV patient is free from infection due to a complex treatment that included stem cell transplantation resistant to the virus.

The American Timothy Ray Brown, who lives in Germany, is being called the “Berlin patient” after spending three years free of the virus that causes AIDS in his body.

His case is the result of an unusual series of coincidences that led him to be subjected to various procedures. In 2007, Brown, who was HIV positive, was diagnosed with leukemia and received by the team of Dr Gero Hütter, Medical University of Berlin, a bone marrow transplant.

The donated material, however, had one peculiarity: it came from an individual who had a natural resistance to HIV. Genetically, the donor did not have in their cells a receptor called CCR5. It turns out that the most common strain of HIV uses CCR5 as just the “station” to turn on and attack the CD4 white blood cells, a type of cell in the immune system. Like all viruses, HIV cannot replicate itself: it uses the genetic material of an individual (in this case, white blood cell) to replicate. So people with this mutation are virtually safe from infection. Despite being the port of entry, CCR5 is not the only way: over time during infection, there are other viruses that can use other receptors such as CXCR4.

The Brown case was first presented in 2008 in Boston at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. In February 2009, the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.