Groundbreaking! For The Second Time In History, A Patient ‘Free’ of HIV After Stem Cell Treatment
A UK patient’s HIV has become “undetectable” following a stem cell transplant – in only the second case of its kind, scientists report in Nature.
Keep on reading Nexter.org to know more.
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Groundbreaking achievement
An HIV positive man in the UK is the second person ever to be declared in remission from the virus, a new study reveals.
The unidentified ‘London patient’ has been free of the virus for 18 months without viral-suppressing treatment after a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer.
The only other person to have survived the life-threatening technique, and come out of it HIV-free, was so-called ‘Berlin patient’ Timothy Ray Brown, a US man treated in Germany 12 years ago.
The latest case ‘shows the cure of Timothy Brown (pictured) was not a fluke and can be recreated,’ said Dr. Keith Jerome.
Every other attempt in the intervening years has been unsuccessful, many with devastating, deadly consequences.
The patient received stem cells three years ago from an HIV-resistant donor and then went off his medication that is meant to keep the disease from growing inside the body, also known as antiretroviral treatment or ART.
HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man, Ravindra Gupta, said that it’s too early to say whether he is officially cured of the disease, but did go as far as saying he was ‘functionally cured’ and ‘in remission’.
The patient contracted the disease in 2003 and was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2012.
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