NEW YORK, Sep 27 (Reuters Health) - When treatment is begun at the first signs of HIV infection, the immune system can be trained to contain the virus without the help of drugs--at least for a time, results of a small study suggest.

In the study, eight patients who had begun treatment at the earliest stages of infection were taken off the drugs. Six months later, five of the patients had undetectable viral levels despite receiving no treatment. This, researchers report, shows that very early drug treatment may prime the immune system to take over the HIV fight.

However, the investigators caution that there is no evidence that people who are doing well on HIV drugs can go off them. These study patients stopped treatment under carefully monitored conditions, Dr. Bruce D. Walker noted in an interview with Reuters Health. Three are now back on drug therapy.

Walker and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, report their findings in the September 28th issue of Nature.

According to Walker, the study patients had begun highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) at a stage when most people do not yet know they are infected. Shortly after people are exposed to HIV, they develop flu-like symptoms in a stage known as acute infection. The study patients all started HIV drugs during acute infection, and Walker said that this early boost may have given their immune systems the "upper hand."

Now, 8 to 11 months after stopping therapy, five of the patients are still off of HIV drugs.

Despite the encouraging findings, Walker added, many unknowns remain--such as how long patients need to be treated before going off drugs, and whether treatment interruption can work for patients who begin therapy later in the course of infection.

These results also underscore the importance of knowing the signs of acute HIV infection so treatment can begin early, Walker said. Flu-like symptoms such as fever and sore throat typically turn up within a few weeks of exposure to HIV. The immune system then begins to fight the virus, ending the acute stage.

(From Reuters Health)