The Portland Medium
New science has given HIV positive patients new hope. Especially one mother, from Esperanza, Argentina, who has had HIV since 2013. Researchers call the woman the “Esperanza patient.” The word “Esperanza” means “hope.”
The Argentinian woman took antiretroviral therapy for six months during pregnancy to prevent transmission of HIV to her baby. She was not working with any antiretroviral therapy prior to that. Additionally, findings suggest that the patient’s immune system was even able to clear the reservoirs of HIV that allow the virus to continue replicating for decades.
Portland makes of about 76% of the more than 5,000 Oregonians that are living with HIV/AIDS. Close to 300 people in Oregon are diagnosed with HIV each year.
Current anti-HIV drugs can lower virus levels to undetectable levels but can’t completely rid the body of these lingering reservoirs of the virus. Remarkable for this 31 year old and her miracle baby!
A study on the new science was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The scientists connected to the study believes that the findings will indeed bring hope to the estimated 38 million people globally living with the virus and to the HIV-cure research field.
Dr. Xu Yu, who led the research team reportings on the case also says that the findings also suggest that she cleared her immune system in a naturally sterile manner, giving no way for any researcher to find a possible trace of infection. She is now pregnant with her second child still working with scientists to see how well she does as far as the infection reaching her and her offspring in a new thesis. Dr. Yu wants to test her breast milk to see if any possible virus. This is the second case of these actions, the last patient being from San Francisco, who cleared the HIV virus completely as well.
The “Elite controller” “natural ability to suppress or rid body of viral activity”-, gave the mother her first HIV negative birth in March of 2020. It is reported that researchers were unable to find any viable HIV in the woman’s body. They used highly sophisticated and sensitive tests to scan over 1 billion of her cells. Esperanza has become only the second documented person whose own immune system may have cured her of HIV.
