AIDS Cure and Treatment Update 2013: 'TasP' as an Effective Strategy to Manage HIV/AIDS

The World's biggest medical hurdle - HIV/AIDS - remains to be an illness that calls for further funding, research and testing, according to Mail & Guardian Online. Contrary to reports, there is no known cure for HIV/AIDS. Yet. Scientists all over the globe however, say that they're getting really close to finding it.

HIV/AIDS: Now a Manageable Condition

In Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Julio Montaner is making significant progress in the treatment of the deadly disease, with the possibility of finding a "functional cure." Working as the director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Dr. Montaner has devoted years in studying and discovering new treatments for HIV/AIDS and has succeeded in turning a deadly epidemic into a low-grade, manageable condition, reports The Vancouver Sun.

Dr. Montaner is applying the "TasP" strategy, which means "treatment as prevention." He says that the application of the this method has dramatically helped in the reduction of new infections. Montaner and his team aggressively seek out HIV-positive individuals and treat them with highly active anti-retro viral therapy (HAART), and the outcome reveals that "individual viral loads (the level of HIV in the blood) are lowered, transmission drops and the progress of the disease in a community can effectively be curbed or halted", notes The Vancouver Sun.

Montaner said, "More people are living with the disease and less people getting infected."

With groundbreaking research and treatment method publicized in the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, many other nations, including China, the United States, France and have applied the "TasP" strategy.   

In the United States, a toddler born with HIV has been "functionally cured" through the same strategy advocated by Montaner. CNN reports that the child, who had been infected in the womb, was given "high doses of three antiretroviral drugs" immediately after being born. Now two and a half years old, the child has been found to have no evidence of HIV in her system. She is "functionally cured," which means "the presence of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood."

Meanwhile, a similar scenario in France was reported the previous year: a group of 12 HIV-positive patients were administered antiretroviral therapy (ART) earlier than usual. Seven years later, the group, known as the "Visconti Cohort" have showed no evidence of the HIV infection despite being taken off therapy, according to The Body Pro.

False Claims of a Cure

HIV/AIDS is such a controversial illness that it is not exempt from being used as a tool for fraud.

In Africa, reports flourished recently that HIV/AIDS patients have been cured in some cities such as Tanzania, Swaziland and Zimbabwe through medication. African non-profit organization Africa Check investigated the claims and found that there have been three false claims that circulated among the HIV/AIDS communities.

Claims made by Topvein, Tashack and the herbal medication 3H on their respective websites say that they have effectively cured HIV/AIDS, and they offer testimonies of patients allegedly supporting the claim. Upon investigation of Africa Check, the testimonies are bogus and the clinical evidence is unfounded and misleading, at best.