The new drug combination announced by international aids expert Anthony Fauci from National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US removes the virus from specific cells of the immune system called CD-4 cells where the virus hides and rests, ready to multiply anytime.

Fauci, an international expert on AIDS, told the global congress on immunology here that adding interleukins, a class of proteins secreted by immune cells, to the existing three-drug combination to treat AIDS patients, totally eliminates the HIV from CD-4 cells that circulate in the blood.The triple drug treatment in use so far, which includes anti-retroviral drugs AZT (azidothymidine) and an enzyme protease inhibitor, only eliminates the virus from blood cells.

But it does not eliminatethe virus from CD-4 cells, in which the virus lurks around. This is the reason why the treatment does not cure aids completely.

Such resting cells containing the latent virus form within a few weeks of infection and have proved to be a major stumbling block in finding a complete cure for aids.

Fauci said this was the first time scientists had shown that triple drug treatment, (known in medical parlance as Haart) and with interleukins eliminates HIV from CD-4 cells.

They are now studying whether this new combination clears out the virus from lymph tissues and other potential reservoirs of the rsting virus. The findings will be published once the lymph tissue studies are completed, fauci told reporters.