The fourth patient in history has been cured of HIV.
A man who has lived with HIV since the 1980s appears to have been cured – marking the fourth such case, doctors say. He was given a bone marrow transplant to treat the blood cancer leukemia from a donor who was naturally virus resistant.
The 66-year-old, who does not want to be identified, has stopped his HIV treatment. He said he was “beyond grateful” that the virus could no longer be found in his body. The man is known as a “City of Hope” patient after the hospital where he was treated in Duarte, California.
Many of his friends died of HIV in the era before antiretroviral drugs gave people near-normal lifespans.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) damages the body’s immune system. This can lead to AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and the body tries to fight the infection.
In a statement, the man said: “When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence. I never thought I would live to see the day I no longer had HIV.”
However, he was not given therapy for his HIV, but because he developed leukemia from the blood cancer at the age of 63. The man’s medical team decided he needed a bone marrow transplant to replace his cancerous blood cells. Coincidentally, the donor was HIV resistant.
The virus enters our body’s white blood cells using a microscopic gate – a protein called CCR5. However, some people, including the donor, have CCR5 mutations that close the door and keep HIV out.