A second HIV patient may have been 'cured' of infection without treatment

Researchers say they have found a second patient whose body seemingly had rid itself of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS -- supporting hope that it may be possible someday to find a way to cure more people of the virus.

The patient has received no treatment for her infection but is a rare "elite controller" of the virus who, eight years after she was first diagnosed, shows no signs of active infection and shows no signs of intact virus anywhere in her body, researchers reported Monday. This has only happened once before.

The international team of scientists reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine that the patient, originally from the city of Esperanza, Argentina, showed no evidence of intact HIV in large numbers of her cells, suggesting that she may have naturally achieved what they describe as a "sterilizing cure" of HIV infection.