HIV can be effectively managed so long as patients conform to a regime of regular antiretroviral (ARV). The treatment suggests that people with HIV can live a normal duration of life as long as they take daily drugs.

According to New Scientist, the vaccine-based therapy currently being trialed among 13 HIV-active participants resulted in five participants being able to keep retain a low, non-dangerous viral load. Despite one of them is not having taken ARVs for 27 weeks. The others patient were virus free for five, 13, 17, and 20 weeks after stopping taking their regular medication.

The researcher from AIDS research institute Beatriz Mothe, Spain said," it is a proof of concept that with vaccines we might be able to re-educate immune system". The scientists believe that it is a positive signal to start a deciphering the mechanisms that can drive the control.

The researchers claimed that if the patients stop doing HIV vaccine therapy the viral level rapidly increases and starts against attacking their immune system. The AIDS researcher from Institute of Barcelona hopes that the new finding will improve further for future larger studies.

Irsi Caixa has reported that during the study, eight out of the 13 participants had to restart ARVs, while each of the remaining had the virus temporarily detectable in their body. But five of the participants no longer needed to take the drugs because their immune systems could suppress the virus unaided.

However, the Mothe said, this is early days, there is the long way to go. She stated that to improve its efficacy in larger studies there is the long way to go with novel vaccines and novel agents. HIV can cause and, in parts of the world ravaged by AIDS, the challenge of keeping people compliant with daily ARVs. This is a reason to be optimistic.

Meanwhile, the finding of the research was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. This is the largest conference on HIV/AIDS in the world.