2 minutes read2 minutes readIn 2020, there were an estimated 29,090 people living with HIV in Australia. An estimated 91% of those people were diagnosed by the end of 2020. Research shows that 91% of people diagnosed were receiving HIV treatment, and 97% of those on treatment, had an undetectable viral load.
In 2020, 58% of HIV notifications were due to sexual contact between men. 24% of the cases were attributed to heterosexual sex, 10% to a combination of sexual contact between men and injecting drug use. 3% was due to drug use alone with the remaining 5% classed as other or unspecified.
This snippet from an infographic by the Australian Federation of AIDS organisations (AFAO) notes that Covid-19 has caused a dramatic reduction in HIV notifications and highlights the need to increase testing rates to pre-pandemic levels.
What are the recent research advances for an HIV cure?
Professor Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute in Melbourne has discovered a medicine used to treat cancer can also draw HIV out of hibernation, exposing the virus to the immune system and make it more vulnerable to attack.
HIV can “hide” in cells, even in patients on antiretroviral therapy and with undetectable amounts of the virus in their blood. This is one of the major barriers to seeking a cure for the disease.
In cancer patients, killer T-cells become dysfunctional which leads to them expressing exhaustion proteins on their surface called PD-1. Previous research by Lewin found PD-1 is the same exhaustion marker which allows HIV to hide in cells
An immunotherapy drug administered intravenously blocks these exhaustion markers in cancer patients. This allows the killer T-cells to regain function and fight the cancer.
Professor Lewin and her team tested the cancer drug against the virus by giving it to 32 patients living with HIV who also have cancer. They uncovered that the drug did have anti-PD-1 properties, and this discovery was published in January 2022.
There is now proof that the drug can reverse latency in HIV patients but whether anti-PD-1 can also boost the immune system enough to then attack and destroy HIV will now form part of future research.
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Sources
[1] Afao.org.au: HIV in Australia
[2] Theguardian.com: Drug used to treat cancer may also help fight HIV Australian research finds
