We have a very small group of patients called elite controllers, who have never received treatment - but their infection and the replicationof the virus is controlled naturally.
"At the same time, you prevent the immune system from being severely damaged by the continual replicationof (the) virus for an extended period of time, " he said.
Encouragingly, in these children long-term control of HIV replication following early antiretroviral treatment has resulted in extremely low levels ofvirus and diminished anti-HIV immune responses.
The medicines used to treat HIV are excellent at suppressing HIV-virus replication and preventing destruction of immune cells, but the medicines are unable to eradicate the dormant, or sleeping, copies in immune cells.
Telaprevir is a protease inhibitor that attacks the virus directly and blocks its replication, much the way antiretrovirals revolutionized the treatment of AIDS over a decade ago.