A Cure?

This week marks the 30 year anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. There still has been no cure but an article on Reuters does provide some hope.  A man in Berlin was, in fact, “cured” of AIDS. There is a genetic mutation that is well-known to be resistant to the virus. The CCR5 delta 32 mutation has been found in a (very) small proportion of people. Timothy Ray Brown was both HIV positive and sick with leukemia. He needed a bone marrow transplant and his doctor suggested a transplant from someone with the genetic mutation. Miraculously it worked and Brown survived and has since not had any signs of the virus replicating and his doctor does not believe he will have any problems with HIV ever again. Obviously a very risky procedure such as this could not be implemented on all HIV+ patients and, in fact, this could be the only success story of its kind.

This story does brings hope that a cure could be found in the near future but it has also sparked a debate, or, rather, reignited the debate over whether money and attention should be focused on prevention or finding a cure. Some believe that research for a cure would detract from the immediate need for stemming the transmission of HIV. It’s an interesting debate and I still don’t know where I truly stand on it. What is your view? Feel free to share your thoughts on this subject or on anything else!

Here’s the link for the article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-aids-idUSTRE75030I20110601