Early detection of HIV may lead to 'Functional Cure'

A small group of HIV-positive patients in France managed to remain healthy after they stopped using antiretroviral treatment, according to French researchers. The patients all began treatment within ten weeks of being infected, reported the Voice of America radio. The study involved 14 adults, a group known as the Visconti cohort. They all began treatment within ten weeks of being infected by HIV, and continued using treatment for an average of three years. “They have been able to control infections off therapy and actually in some of them we observe a decrease in the levels of viral reservoirs over the years,” said Dr. Asier Saez-Cirion, the lead researcher of the French study. “So they have achieved a kind of remission of infection.” The study says with early diagnosis and quick treatment about one in 10 HIV-positive patients could be “functionally cured” — a state where the virus has not been eradicated but has been reduced to levels low enough that further treatment is not needed. The 14 patients in the study have remained healthy for more than seven years.