AIDS Breakthrough - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

8/12/05

AIDS Breakthrough

It is not a cure, and even the lead researcher is calling this a baby step, but others describe it as a breakthrough in the fight against AIDS.

It is published in the British Journal Lancet that an anti-epilepsy drug called Valproic Acid actually reduced levels of HIV that were dormant and hiding in the body scientists say this brings new hope to patients that instead of just containing the virus, we may be able to eliminate it, someday.

"That one day maybe within ten or fifteen years maybe earlier that we will have a cure and that they will not have to take that complex regimen with a lot of side effects for the rest of their life," says Dr. Philippe Chiliade the medical director at Whitman-Walker Clinic.

This was a small study, so more are needed to test the results. Meanwhile today, there are 40 million people in the world living with HIV and AIDS.

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