Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2010, as news from that month about a laboratory experiment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It did not lead to an approved cure for HIV.
Some very good news arrived today in the fight against AIDS: scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have achieved an advance that had been out of reach until now. They successfully carried out a laboratory experiment in which they destroyed cells infected with HIV without damaging healthy cells.
If applied properly, this treatment could undoubtedly be the definitive cure for AIDS, since until now there were only drugs that merely prevented the virus from replicating.
That said, if this really is the definitive cure for AIDS (HIV), will they let it reach the market? It’s a big question, because HIV infection affects a percentage of the population and some pharmaceutical companies make billions every year from this disease.
One thing is clear: if that turns out to be the case and we really are in the final stretch of the fight against AIDS, several corporations would face considerable annual losses. Though I’m sure they’d be delighted with such a discovery… or, well… I’m not so sure.
Featured image: NIAID, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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