A HARMLESS virus could help prolong the lives of people with HIV.
Jack Stapleton and his colleagues from the University of Iowa found that
people with HIV who carry the hepatitis G virus鈥攚hich doesn鈥檛 cause
disease鈥攍ive much longer than those who are not infected. In a study with
362 HIV-positive patients, the death rate was cut by nearly half over a
four-year period for the 144 people with the virus, which is also known as
GBV-C. In laboratory experiments, GBV-C slashed HIV production by 35 per
cent.
A second study led by Hans Tillmann at Hanover Medical School in Germany
confirmed that GBV-C cut AIDS mortality rates (The New England Journal of
Medicine, vol 345, p 707 and p 715). But researcher Daniel Diekema warns: 鈥淲e
need to learn more about GBV-C before thinking of it as a treatment.鈥�
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