All indications are that a 66-year-old patient who has lived with HIV since 1988 has been cured. This is only the fourth such case in the world.
The man with HIV underwent a bone marrow transplant after contracting leukemia at the age of 63. Quite by chance, it turned out that the bone marrow donor was naturally immune to the virus. The transplant not only cured the man of leukemia, but also made the levels of HIV in his body undetectable.
Currently, the patient has been in remission for over 17 months. A man who wishes to remain anonymous is referred to as a “patient of the City of Hope” because of the hospital where he was treated. City of Hope Hospital in California is one of the best clinics for cancer and AIDS patients.
See also: HIV virus – symptoms of infection, treatment
“I did not think I would live to see the day without the virus”
In a statement, “a patient from the City of Hope” confessed: “When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence. I never thought that I would live to be HIV-free ».
HIV enters the body’s white blood cells through a microscopic ‘door’, a protein called CCR5. However, some people, including this bone marrow donor, have CCR5 mutations which lock the door and prevent HIV.
Many of the man’s acquaintances, also infected with HIV, died in the time before the invention of antiretroviral drugs that allowed him to reach an almost normal life expectancy.
See also: AIDS – symptoms of infection. AIDS and HIV [EXPLAINED]
/ em>
This is the fourth such case
Man is the longest-lived patient with HIV. Now he no longer needs to take the treatment that has been part of his life for over 30 years.
The first cure from HIV was in 2011. It was Timothy Ray Brown, known as the “Berlin patient”. There have been other such cases in the last three years.
Currently, about 38 million people around the world are infected with HIV. According to doctors, bone marrow transplants will not be a modern remedy for HIV. Transplant carries too great a risk of complications and side effects. Patients have to wait for the effective gene therapy that researchers are working on.
Source: BBC.com