Interesting Claims of HIV Treatment

By Dr.Khushnood 
 

There is no cure for AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome).HAART (Highly active anti-retroviral therapy) is the only proven effective means to take on HIV infections. It helps reduce viral load and thus improve general health and quality of life of AIDS patients. It also helps reduce the risk of HIV infection following exposure.
That’s said let us relish some of the interesting claims of HIV treatment.

1. President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia asserted in early 2007 that his herbal treatment had cured patients of the AIDS virus. As per report he tested the treatment on 10 patients who had already been undergoing anti-retroviral therapy. They were required to stop the therapy. After the herbal treatment samples were sent to Professor Souleymane Mboup of the University of Dakar, Senegal. The professor later said that he was duped into analyzing those samples. The interpretation of the result was wrong. He clarified that prior anti-retroviral therapy was the reason for low viral load in some samples.

2. In early 2007 there was another claim by researchers from the University of Zimbabwe that an herbal treatment called gundamiti reduces HIV blood levels and boosts CD4 "helper" T-cells. They boasted that it was developed after 14 years of research. The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Edwin Muguti, said that the drug had proven to have anti-retroviral properties.

3. Dr. Hütter published a research article wherein he concluded that HIV-1 could be treated by Stem Cell transplantation. It’s known that people whose immune cells have a defective CCR5 receptor are protected against the virus. He, therefore, deliberately sought a donor with such a mutation for his leukemia patient with AIDS. 20 months following transplantation the patient showed no evidence of HIV virus. Researchers are looking at it with caution while suggesting that blocking the expression of CCR5, by ways like gene therapy, might inhibit the ability of virus to replicate.
(Hütter G, et al "Treatment of HIV-1 Infection by Allogeneic CCR5-Δ32/Δ32 Stem Cell Transplantation: A Promising Approach" CROI 2008; Abstract 719)

4. The leading pharmaceutical company Merck’s vaccine went on to Stage II testing in South Africa. It failed. This was attributed to the use of non-replicating viral vector instead of a replicating one like adenovirus.

That’s all. Good day.

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