{"id":3345,"date":"2021-12-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3345"},"modified":"2021-11-22T03:55:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T03:55:26","slug":"hiv-viruses-vanish-from-a-womans-body-in-a-second-ever-reported-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/hiv-viruses-vanish-from-a-womans-body-in-a-second-ever-reported-case\/","title":{"rendered":"HIV Viruses \u201cVanish\u201d From a Woman\u2019s Body In a Second-Ever Reported Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in 2013, a woman from Esperanza, Argentina, was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus<\/em> (HIV), notorious for being the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome<\/em> (AIDS). The diagnosis altered the woman\u2019s life, and would impact her for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman, dubbed the \u201cEsperanza Patient,\u201d would join an estimated 37.6 million people across the world who are infected with HIV, according to data from HIV.gov.  Of the 37.6 million, some 1.5 million were only diagnosed just that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HIV-1, one of the HIV viruses, can be seen as green in the image above while they undergo \u201cbudding\u201d from cultured lymphocytes. The image was taken using a scanning electron microscope. (Goldsmith, 1984) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Esperanza Patient is considered an elite controller<\/em>, or an HIV-positive patient whose viral load is low enough that they don\u2019t usually develop symptoms from their infection, even in the absence of treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thing is, something peculiar happened to the Esperanza Patient that left medical professionals stunned; eight years after she was diagnosed with HIV, test results show that the HIV particles inside her body had seemingly vanished. In fact, several tests that \u201cmassive numbers of cells from blood and tissues\u201d show the very fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s even more remarkable is the fact that the Esperanza patient had received no treatment that might have possibly addressed her infection, likely due to her being an elite controller; this makes the Esperanza Patient the second-ever recorded case of a human\u2019s immune system eliminating HIV without intervention via drugs or bone marrow transplant. These one-of-a-kind findings were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first case was recorded just last year in a woman named Loreen Willenberg, who had previously lived with HIV for 27 years before finding out that it had all but vanished from her system. Two other HIV \u201cvanishing acts\u201d were reported in two patients nicknamed the \u201cBerlin Patient\u201d and the \u201cLondon Patient\u201d; however, these two had undergone stem cell therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HIV also has a social aspect, in the fact that individuals who are diagnosed with it can experience firsthand the stigma imposed upon the disease by the general public. Efforts are actively pursued in the elimination of these said stigmas, however, which include information campaigns and similar efforts. (Unuabona, 2021) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is really the miracle of the human immune system that did it,\u201d said Ragon Institute immunologist Dr. Xu Yu, who worked together with Buenos Aires-based INBIRS Institute physician scientist Dr. Natalia Laufer in the mysterious case of the Esperanza Patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Yu, both the Esperanza Patient and Willenberg had their immune system-inherent T-cells hunt down the HIV in their bodies with quite some potency. Despite this, however, scientists exercise caution, and must remind the general public that these results don\u2019t necessarily mean that HIV is now 100% absent from the Esperanza Patient\u2019s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re never going to be 100 percent sure there\u2019s absolutely no intact virus, no functional virus anywhere in her body,\u201d said Yu. \u201cTo bring what we learn from these patients to a broader patient population is our ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, much research work needs to be done to truly ascertain the truth behind the remarkable events encircling the Esperanza Patient. Despite this, however, the unnamed woman behind the findings continues to see her new lease on life as a sign of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoy being healthy,\u201d said the Esperanza patient to NBC News. \u201cI have a healthy family. I don\u2019t have to medicate, and I live as though nothing has happened. This already is a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For more health news, check out how a blind woman regained some of her vision using brain implants<\/a>; afterwards, check out the longest-ever recorded case of COVID-19<\/a>, which sat at a record-breaking 335 total days of infection.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n