Could one Californian woman hold the key to a cure for HIV/AIDS?

61-year-old woman lives with HIV but has never had any symptoms or disease progression.

Among 35 million people infected with HIV, one woman from Sacramento, California has never taken any prescription drugs, but the virus has not damaged her body, despite being diagnosed HIV positive 23 years ago. Loreen Willenberg has reportedly never been sick and has never displayed any symptoms showing the virus as taking over her immune system.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Since her body's unusual reaction to HIV, Willenberg has participated in various studies searching for a cure for HIV and AIDS.

"In a clinical sense, I'm not progressing towards AIDS. I'm not progressing towards the disease stage," said Willenberg, quoted from CBS13. She is among the few HIV-positive with bodies capable of suppressing the virus from causing damage.

"Their body has such an effective way of reacting to the virus that it's hard to even detect that they're virus positive," said Dr. Richard Pollard, Infectious Disease Specialist from UC Davis School of Medicine.

Researchers speculate that the rare non-reaction to the virus in certain people is because the CD8 T-cells within them are strong enough not to be overpowered by the virus.

As HIV kills the CD4 T-cells, the white blood cells protect the immune system; the CD8 T-cells help regulate the infection while fighting off the virus.

Without HIV damaging and taking over the CD8 cells, they prevent the virus from replicating itself and ultimately attacking the immune system.

"I haven't had a decline of CD4 cell count at all, and that's pretty magnificent, and I'm very humbled by that," said Willenberg, who is going to college to major in bioethics and still actively participates in research.

Dr. Pollard explained that studying the "elite controllers" is just one of the avenues they are taking to find the cure.

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