Researchers in Spain have made an astounding discovery in HIV treatment. It seems that the new therapeutic vaccine can temporarily control HIV infection.
The therapeutic vaccine, that contains immune cells, was tested on 36 people infected with HIV and the results were promising. After 12 weeks of clinical study, viral load decreased by 90% in 12 of the 22 participants who received the vaccine. This result was recorded in only a person of 11 patients who received control injection.
However, this result was not maintained for more than 24 weeks, because after that time effectiveness began to decline. Only 7 participants from those who received the therapeutic vaccine maintained the 90% decrease in viral load. This result in turn, was not registered in any of the patients in the control group.
Although this new form of treatment does not control the disease in the long-term, however patients who received the vaccine had an advantage because they have not had to take multiple daily medicines. Current treatment in HIV infection consists of a combination therapy associating multiple antiretrovirals (highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART), which have more side effects.
AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the disease caused by HIV infection, affects the immune system. Most often, people infected with HIV die because of opportunistic infections ( Pneumocystis carinii, Candida etc ). It is estimated that in 2010 34 million people were infected, but the number can be even higher as the HIV infection has a long period of latency.
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