HIV Drugs Help Woman With Multiple Sclerosis Walk Again

A UK woman is able to walk again after using antiretroviral drugs to treat her multiple sclerosis, according to the BBC. 

Shana Pazaro, 36, began ART when she feared she had contracted HIV. Pazaro, who was diagnosed with MS at age 28, noticed an easing of her symptoms and was able to walk up and down stairs for the first time in years after taking the HIV treatment. 

Prior to her diagnosis, Pazaro was a dancer and piano instructor. Her condition affected her hands and feet, and for years she used a wheelchair.

"Three days after I took the drugs I walked up a flight of stairs," Pazaro told the BBC. "That was an unbelievable massive change." 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the central nervous system. In MS, the coating on nerve endings is damaged, making physical tasks painful and sometimes impossible. There is no known cure for MS.

Pazaro's case prompted a clinical study examining the effect antiretroviral treatments have on MS patients. Dr. Julian Gold, a researcher who previously studied the association between MS and HIV, saw a video of Pazaro climbing the stairs and set up a study at a hospital in Sydney. 

Gold told the BBC that researchers had found that anitretroviral treatment may suppress other viruses like the one that causes MS.