“We’re all struggling with this,” Dr. Dieffenbach told this news organization. “The goal is to get enough of these people so maybe there’s a road map to how to induce, trigger, change immunity. But this could well be a unique event at the time of initiation of infection. We just don’t know.”
What is needed, Dr. Yu said, is for clinicians to reach out to them regarding cases that could mimic the cases of Ms. Willenberg and the Esperanza Patient. Elaborate testing could then be conducted to see whether these cases are similar to those of Ms. Willenberg and the Esperanza Patient.
“We do think there are more out there,” Dr. Yu said in an interview.
Asked whether we’re still far away from applying these one-off cures to the millions of people taking HIV treatment daily, Dr. Yu responded, “We might be close. That’s the beauty of scientific discovery. We don’t know, but that’s why we need more engagement of the community and care providers to help us.”
The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Yu and Dr. Dieffenbach have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.