QUICKFLASH: HIV HIDES IN BONE MARROW

New research shows that HIV can hide in the bone marrow, where it can avoid drugs and treatment, and then later awaken to cause illness. Last month, Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan reported in the Nature Medicine journal that HIV can hide in long-lived marrow cells that will eventually convert to blood cells.

Dr. Collins states that the virus itself is dormant in the bone marrow cells, but when those cells convert to blood cells, the virus can be reactivated and cause renewed infection. Once reactivated, the virus kills the blood cells and then moves on to infect other cells.