With the help of medication, people with HIV infection can now live well. People have been working on the cure for decades – now there has been a breakthrough.
New York – The news from New York is like a scientific sensation: the third person worldwide has been cured of HIV. In addition, it is a patient and thus the first woman ever to be cured. An American research team led by Yvonne J. Bryson, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (University of California), reported on the medical milestone at a Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The focus is on the cured woman, who is called the “New York patient” because she received her special treatment in a New York hospital.
HIV patient cured with umbilical cord blood
The middle-aged, multi-ethnic woman was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2013. Antiretroviral drugs enabled her to live with the virus until myeloid leukemia was diagnosed in 2017. Myeloid leukemia is a form of cancer that begins in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.
The “New York patient” was then treated with cord blood from an infant who, through a genetic abnormality, is inherently resistant to the virus that causes AIDS. In addition, the woman received blood transfusions from a close relative to support her immune system. Since the treatment, the “New York patient” has discontinued her medication and, according to American doctors, is HIV-free.
HIV healing was only successful in two people before
Physicians had only successfully cured HIV disease twice before, both times the healed were men. The “Berlin patient” Timothy Ray Brown was virus-free for twelve years after his treatment, he died of cancer in 2020. Three years ago, doctors also healed Adam Castillejo, who has been living HIV-free ever since.
However, the two men were not treated with umbilical cord blood, but received bone marrow transplants. This treatment is extremely risky. Brown and Castillejo both suffered severe side effects. Stem cells from umbilical cord blood, like those given to the “New York patient”, are much better tolerated, according to the doctors. A complete match between donor and recipient is no longer absolutely necessary, which could be a great advantage. If you take a look at the worldwide stem cell databases, it is predominantly white people who are registered there.
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