HIV and AIDS cure news: Adhering to treatment could eliminate infection

(Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters)A blood sample during a free HIV test that is part of a campaign to prevent HIV infection.

The latest study in search of HIV and AIDS cure has claimed that patients that have the sexually transmitted disease could potentially be cleared if they adhere to their treatments properly.

According to the newly released study from the journal Lance Infectious Diseases, eliminating new infections is possible. This is what the the UCLA researchers found out after conducting a decade-long study on HIV cure in Denmark since the year 1995.

They found out that 98 percent of patients strictly follow their medications when they were observing men who engage in sexual contact with other men. They also learned that when more treatments became available in the late 1990s, there was a decline of HIV infections. The results showed that for every 1,000 men in 2013 there were only 1.4 infections in Denmark.

"The Danes have done what nobody else in the world has been able to do," said Sally Blower, senior author and the director of the Center for Biomedical Modeling at UCLA, in a press release. "They have almost eliminated their HIV epidemic, and they have achieved this simply by providing treatment."

Blower also pointed out that the study was also possible because of Denmark's capable healthcare system. "Even in resource-rich countries, this would take a huge amount of money and effort. The goal of elimination through treatment is aspirational, but Denmark has shown that — at least in resource-rich countries — it's achievable," she added.

In other related news, an HIV and AIDs-infected patient, Loreen Wallenberg, has shared on CBS Sacramento that although she has been living with the disease for 23 years, she never felt sick nor has shown symptoms. She admits feeling fine despite not taking her medication.

"In a clinical sense, I'm not progressing towards AIDS. I'm not progressing towards the disease stage," she told CBS. Apparently, she has been part of 13 different studies on HIV cure.

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