A former Texas researcher has successfully attacked traces of dormant HIV in people, leading some to suggest that a cure for AIDS may be within reach. For 20 years, scientists have searched for a means to extinguish the human immunodeficiency virus, which infects 13,000 new people a day.Today’s best drugs — expensive and inaccessible to many — can only keep the virus in check. They can’t destroy inactive HIV.But with results from a “proof of concept” study, David Margolis argues that a drug developed to treat seizures and depression appears able to flush out dormant HIV, making it vulnerable to treatment.
