UA 60-year-old German man is likely cured of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), a medical milestone achieved by only six other people in the more than 40 years since the epidemic began.
According to NBC, the man, who prefers to remain anonymous (being called the ‘next Berlin patient’), was treated for acute myeloid leukemia with a stem cell transplant in October 2015. He stopped taking antiretroviral drugs in September 2018 and remains in viral remission without relapse.
He underwent several ultra-sensitive tests that failed to detect any viable HIV in his body.
In a statement, the man said: “A healthy person has many desires, a sick person only one.”
The case, which researchers say offers vital lessons for HIV cure research, is due to be presented next Wednesday by Dr. Christian Gaebler, a physician-scientist at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, at the 25th International HIV Conference in Munich.
The original Berlin patient, Timothy Ray Brown, was the first person declared cured of HIV in 2008. Brown died of cancer in 2020.
Doctors warn, however, that the treatment that apparently stopped the virus in the seven patients will only be available to a limited number of people. All of them contracted HIV and later developed blood cancer, which required stem cell transplants to treat the disease.
The transplants – in most cases from selected donors – had a rare and natural resistance to the virus and were fundamental in apparently eradicating all viable or competent copies of the virus from the organism.
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2600813/alemao-de-60-anos-sera-a-setima-pessoa-curada-do-vih-apos-transplante
