A new research, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, states that treating people with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rapidly after they have become infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be enough to achieve a "functional cure" in a small proportion of patients diagnosed early. Scientists in France who followed 14 patients who were treated very swiftly with HIV drugs but then stopped treatment found that even when they had been off therapy for more than seven years, they still showed no signs of the virus rebounding. The research’s findings are somewhat similar to the case earlier this month of a baby girl in Mississippi in the United States who was cured of HIV after receiving very early treatment.

Christine Rouzioux, a professor at Necker Hospital and University Paris Descartes and a co-discoverer of HIV 30 years ago, described the shrinking of viral reservoirs, limiting of viral mutations, and preservation of immune responses in these patients as closely matching the definition of “functional cure”. The implication of a “functional cure” is that the patient will not have to continue taking antiretroviral drugs because the virus, although still detectable in the body, is reduced to a level where it no longer poses a threat.

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http://www.234globe.com/story/209/Rapid+Treatment+Helps+%27Cure%27+HIV+Patients.html