The rare case of an argentine woman who got rid of HIV without treatment and which encourages scientists

A woman from Argentina appears to have rid herself of HIV without drugs or treatment — the second documented case of its kind in the world.

Doctors believe the patient’s immune system cleared the virus on its own.

Tests on more than 1 billion of its cells found no viable traces of the infection, according to the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

If this process were able to be controlled, it could offer a way to effectively eliminate or cure HIV, experts say.

Eliminating HIV

The findings are further proof that some people are born with natural resistance to HIV. Some have genes that prevent infection.

Others — including “patient Esperanza,” who wants to remain anonymous — seem to contract but later eradicate the virus.

But most people with HIV need antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the rest of their lives.

​If they stop taking these drugs, the dormant virus can wake up and cause problems again.

In recent years, however, there have been reports of “elite controllers” who can suppress the virus, with help but without HIV medication.

These people continue to have a positive diagnosis for the virus, but do not undergo treatment to control their viral load, which is undetectable. Therefore, they cannot infect others.

Adam Castillejo of London was able to stop taking his daily HIV pills after receiving stem cell treatment from a donor for a cancer he also had.

Their HIV-infected cells were shed and replaced during cancer therapy.

And, luckily, his donor was part of the tiny group of 1% of people who were born with genes that prevent HIV from entering and infecting cells.

It’s not clear how long that lead could last for Castillejo, however.

‘Sterilizing cure’

But patient Esperanza has had no detectable HIV for more than eight years.

Loreen Willenberg, of San Francisco, USA, also appears to be functionally cured of HIV by her own immune system.

And that offers hope for a “sterilizing cure” for other patients.

The person responsible for the study, Xu Yu, from the Ragon Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, in the US, said: “There may be a practical path to a sterilizing cure for people who are not able to do this on their own.”

“We are now looking at the possibility of inducing this type of immunity in people on ART (antiretroviral therapy), through vaccination, with the aim of educating their immune systems to be able to control the virus without ART.”

‘Abortive infection’

Professor John Frater of Oxford University in the UK told BBC News that while it is nearly impossible to say whether someone has actually been cured of HIV, researchers have done “everything that could be asked of them with current technology” to prove it.

“The key question is whether this patient actually healed or, on the other hand, did she have some form of abortive infection, which tried to progress but was eliminated early,” he said.

“Her immune system clearly shows a memory of being infected, so there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that she contracted the virus.”

“After all, there may be similar patients out there, and there is still a lot to learn in the search for a cure for HIV.”

Professor Sarah Fidler, a specialist in HIV medicine at Imperial College London, said the work contributes to the immunological therapies currently in development.

But Andrew Freedman of Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales said current HIV drugs are extremely effective and while looking at future treatments is important, improving access to antiretroviral therapy worldwide is an urgent priority.