UAE Arab Health experts reveal that a cure to HIV is closer

On Wednesday, at the Arab Health 2023 exhibition, it was revealed that a potential treatment for HIV is closer. Visitors at the exhibition had the opportunity to discover new updates in terms of moving closer to understanding how to treat HIV in the long-term and eventually finding a cure.

“Although a cure for HIV is extremely rare, it is indeed possible. With Single Cell Technologies transforming our understanding of HIV latency (the clinically latent infection stage, also referred to as asymptomatic HIV infection), the current strategies for achieving an HIV cure include latency reversal, immunotherapy and gene therapy,” said Professor Sharon Lewin, Director, Doherty Institute, Melbourne, Australia and President of the International AIDS Society (IAS).

“While we are unsure when a cure will be available, we expect that the first approach to achieve HIV remission will be with combination immune therapy and an ex vivo cure with gene or cellular therapy. Ultimately, an in vivo cure is what we are after, and a single-shot cure for everyone with HIV remains a long way off, but it is where we are headed,” Lewin added.

With 38.4 million people living with HIV and 1.5 million new infections in 2021, the pandemic still remains a major global problem. Regions including MENA, Eastern Europe and Central Asia have seen a rise in infection rates due to limited access to prevention services.

Arab Health 2023 is the 48th edition of the medical exhibition, currently being held at the Dubai World Trade Centre until February 2. Over 5,000 exhibitors are at the show as a which provides a platform for new products and services as well as showcasing new developments. Arabian Business