Status: Is a cure in prospect?
So far, a cure for HIV is not possible. However, hope has not been dashed as there was one patient who could be cured in 2007. In 2019, two more cases of patients who might have been cured were presented at an international AIDS conference.
However, these patients have to be observed first before a final statement about a cure can be made. The patient who could be cured suffered from blood cancer and needed a stem cell transplant. The special thing about this stem cell transplantation was (besides the appropriate molecular structures of the tissue for the recipient) a mutation of the CCR5 protein.
This protein is required by the virus to enter the immune cell. If a mutation occurs, the virus can no longer enter the cell and dies. Scientists are researching this mechanism and are trying to use it for new therapeutic approaches.
The first scientific studies on this topic have already been published. Perhaps the researchers will succeed in curing HIV in the near future. Unfortunately, once the diagnosis has been confirmed and a therapy has been started, it is still a long way off for those affected.
Many moral and even legal problems arise in daily life. For example, caution is advised when passing on this information to whom. HIV does not have to be reported, so that the treating physician is bound to absolute secrecy.
Only in exceptional cases, for example if the doctor has reasonable suspicion that the patient is having unprotected sex with an uninformed partner, may there be an exception to this rule. But also relatives and friends who have been taken into confidence can be sued for damages in case of careless disclosure. However, someone who knows that he has become infected with HIV is obliged to protect his sexual partner from infection by using a condom.
During job interviews, the illness may be concealed and even denied as long as the illness does not negatively influence the job. This does not apply to occupational groups with a risk of transmission, such as surgeons and other medical specialists. However, the HIV infection can also have a restrictive effect on pilots, for example, as it makes entry into certain tropical regions difficult and dangerous.
Colleagues at the workplace are not normally at risk, as infection via saliva is not possible. Exceptions are again employees in clinics and laboratories, where a lot of work is done with pointed objects. AIDS patients with severely impaired performance can be classified as severely disabled and receive appropriate benefits.
