HIV Cure Research is an ongoing process and there is still a long way to go in terms of cutting edge research. Therapies have been discovered that can contain the spread and multiplication of HIV cells, but there is no certainty they will stop bouncing back once treatment is stopped. It cannot be said that HIV has been truly and effectively eradicated in the last two decades since the infection was first detected. Medical researchers and doctors are still confused about the right time and moment for taking off antiretroviral therapy.
Treatment costs are also proving to be very high. The very basic anti retroviral treatment can cost at least $20,000 a year. The sum is out of reach for HIV affected patients from developing countries, where in some places the incidence of the virus is higher. Unless patients have good access to medications, it is impossible for people from developing countries to spend that amount of money. For people from poorer regions of sub Saharan Africa, the money is prohibitive. The stem cell transplant which had worked for a Berlin patient a couple of years ago cost $200,000.
It is expected by scientists and medical researchers across the world that with improvement of technology, accessibility to treatment will be far easier and the cost would naturally come down. A Scientific Strategy Towards AIDS Cure led to development of stem cell transplant. The cells were taken from a patient who was naturally immune to HIV. But the cost of the treatment would make it affordable to only the rich and people from developed nations across the world.
Even though some giant steps have been made in the past few years in AIDS cure research, the costs have to come down for the benefit of the larger community of HIV affected patients. The immediate death sentence that was prevalent a few years ago is history. Despite development of technology, patients are still at the mercy of a constant barrage of anti retroviral treatment. The therapy is not full proof and there is no time frame to decide when it can be halted. HIV Cure Gene Therapy has been a recent development in the form of an experiment on a patient. It was aimed at providing functional cure, for which the presence of residual HIV virus was not expected to matter.
