20.07.12
Funds must not be diverted from anti-AIDs research – Barré-Sinoussi
Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the co-Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of the AIDS/HIV virus, has cautioned that other projects researching cures and treatment for AIDs should not scale down or cease their work, despite a breakthrough that suggests a cure is possible.
Talk about a cure for HIV has begun after Timothy Brown, the ‘Berlin Patient’, no longer showed signs of the virus in his body after two bone marrow transplants were conducted to tackle his leukaemia.
A second patient inNew Jerseyalso showed an alternative treatment to HIV, receiving gene therapy that allowed his body to contain the virus, though not eradicate it.
“The reason why we are talking about a cure today is because we have some evidence that it might be possible,” Prof Barré-Sinoussi told the BBC.
Yesterday, the professor spoke at a conference inWashingtonabout the strategy to continue research into these recent developments in the possible treatment of HIV/AIDs.
At present, treatment of HIV requires a regular course of expensive drugs to allow the patient to live to a normal lifespan. The costs of medication and necessity for strict regular doses, especially over such a long timescale, restrict the availability of treatment internationally.
“Under no circumstances should the inclusion of ‘cure’ in the global response direct funding away from treatment, prevention and care programmes, or from biomedical research on HIV and its consequences, including vaccine and other prevention research,” she admonished.
Prof Barré-Sinoussi emphasised that a timescale for a “cure” could not be given.
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