There have a been a lot of breaking HIV stories this past week, here are a couple more.

The first is another breakthrough: scientists discover a protein that destroys HIV.

The second was a little tough for me to take, but discovery can only lead to a furthering of understanding, right?

Apparently HIV can hide in the brain, relatively unaffected by medical treatment. This just brings to light the necessity of understanding that just because viral levels are low in the bloodstream, which is where viral loads are measured, they aren’t necessarily low everywhere else in the body. And we know that HIV is a destructive virus- it hurts the places in which it lives. This may push research into medication/treatment that addresses the blood/brain barrier.

In the meantime, will we see measuring spinal fluid viral loads as routine in our future?