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BOSTON : The scientists have made the biggest breakthrough for treating the HIV virus.
Recently, two patients have been declared cured from HIV after they undergo a bone marrow transplant at the Dana-Farber in Boston.
After the transplant, the virus is no longer traceable in their bloodstreams and they no longer need to take medication.
One of the patients was infected in the early years of HIV’s epidemic, while the other contracted the virus from his mother when he was a baby.
Both of them already stop taking any HIV suppression drugs for several months, and so far there have been no signs of the virus returning.
However, they are regularly being monitored because the HIV virus possibly has the ability to lay dormant at low levels and later become active.
Long-term follow up of at least one year will be required to understand the full impact of a bone marrow transplant on HIV virus.
Bone marrow transplants are risky because there is a 15-20 percent mortality rate.
But with this success, it will help researchers understand the HIV virus and later come up with more successful treatment in the future.