There is something miraculous about our body, I mean there are things that even science can’t explain, some researchers and medical professionals are open to admitting it.

Just like what happened in one woman in Argentina who has been presumably “cured” of HIV just with her own immune system, and in what reports are calling just the second documented example of the phenomenon on record.

Many reports say that the 30-year-old woman has been dubbed the “Esperanza patient” after her hometown. Translated to English, “esperanza” means “hope”.

The woman is being called an “elite controller” of the virus, marking the second time a rare case like this has been discovered.  The report in the Annals of Internal Medicine claims that the patient from Argentina may have naturally achieved a “sterilizing cure” for HIV.

The woman was diagnosed with HIV in March 2014. She didn’t start antiretroviral treatment until 2019 when she became pregnant. She started the cocktail of tenofovir, emtricitabine, and raltegravir for six months during her second and third trimesters. Her baby was born HIV-negative and she stopped the medication.

Researchers looked at her blood and tissue samples and found no intact virus capable of replicating. They only found seven defective proviruses that are part of the genetic material of a host cell.

They examined 1.2 billion blood cells and 500 million placenta-tissue cells, USA Today reported.

Researchers are not sure how it happened but believe that her cytotoxic T cells — which, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, are part of the immune system that destroy cells infected with viruses or tumors — helped.

According to the USA Today:

 The peer-reviewed findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, USA Today reported. The scientists hope that it could give hope to the 38 million people around the world who have HIV.

In a CNN report:

The only other such case was that of Loreen Willenberg, 67.

Dr. Xu Yu, the author of the study, told CNN via email, “A sterilizing cure for HIV has previously only been observed in two patients who received a highly toxic bone marrow transplant. Our study shows that such a cure can also be reached during natural infection — in the absence of bone marrow transplants (or any type of treatment at all).”

Yu is part of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard.

Yu told CNN:

“Examples of such a cure that develops naturally suggest that current efforts to find a cure for HIV infection are not elusive, and that the prospects of getting to an ‘AIDS-free generation’ may ultimately be successful.”

The woman was reportedly diagnosed with HIV in 2013. Speaking with NBC News, the woman said that she has a “healthy family” and that she doesn’t have to medicate.

Sources: Newshourfirst, Usatoday, Edition.cnn