Racing for a Cure - HIV

            The unrelenting epidemic of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), paves way for AIDS, one of the worst viruses the world has ever experienced. Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a virus that has been perplexing scientists and doctors for decades, and even though many advances for treating AIDS have been discovered, there is still no cure - only a "band-aid" to put on the wound. .
             New research discoveries show considerable promise in finding not only a way to kill the virus once it's in the body, but to completely wipe it out. .
             More research funding would move speed up the process of finding a cure. And as over 30,000,000 people live with the HIV virus in their blood, time is of the essence. A few studies worth funding are those that are finding ways to eliminate the co-receptors of the initial cell fusing process and focusing treatment on the viral reservoirs. These studies are still in the early stages of research, yet with increased funding, these areas of discovery may lead to a complete eradication of HIV and AIDS. .
             Even with the change of prognosis of HIV from being a death sentence to a tolerable, chronic disease, due to the development of antiviral medications, scientists and researchers cannot help but strive towards a cure. One study offers the avenue of eliminating the co-receptor CCR5 in order to destroy HIV's initiation process into a cell. One such incidence had occurred in a virologically suppressed patient, who underwent a bone marrow transplant due to his leukemia. He was matched with a donor who had the same homozygous CCR5Δ32 mutation. With successful reconstitution of his immune system, HIV could not be detected, even without the use of HAART. Doctors presume that the virus had not been eradicated but was simply unable to replicate onto new cells since the receptors had been changed. Thus proving that virological suppression can occur without the use of antiretroviral medications.