Scientists have developed a groundbreaking blood test which can identify the HIV virus even when it is "hiding" in the body of a patient apparently in remission. Researchers hope the discovery will revolutionise the treatment of HIV and bring forward the day when the development of full-blown AIDS in carriers of the virus is not inevitable.
Dr Sunil Shaunak, who headed the research effort at Hammersmith hospital, London, said: "With this new test we can check regularly and look more accurately than before at the way in which the virus is behaving, and accurately measure its progress and the effectiveness of the drugs we are using to treat it."
Treatment of HIV has been impeded by the virus's ability to conceal itself and continue to replicate, even though blood tests indicate that it has ceased to grow. The discovery that HIV hid in body organs only came after the development of successful triple-therapy anti-retroviral drug treatment.
Biopsies revealed that the virus was continuing to replicate in organs such as the brain, eyes and testes. This led Dr Shaunak and his team to begin the search for a "calling card", a trace to find the virus where existing tests failed.