2024-07-23 06:55:10
A study presented the case of a 60-year-old German man, who after receiving a bone marrow transplantno longer shows traces of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in his body. The discovery becomes the seventh probable case of being cured of the virus.
The “new Berlin patient” as the patient was nicknamed, whose identity remained anonymous, in reference to the first “Berlin patient”, Timothy Ray Brown, the first person cured of AIDS in 2008.
The German, who was diagnosed HIV positive in 2009, received a bone marrow transplant in 2015 to treat leukemia. In 2018, she stopped taking antiretroviral drugs and almost six years later, tests showed no presence of the virus.
However, Christian Gaebler, a doctor at the Charité hospital in Berlin, mentioned that They are not “absolutely sure” that all traces of the virus were eliminated. “This patient’s case is very suggestive of a cure for HIV,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sharon Lewin, president of the International AIDS Society, commented that with more than Five years without traces of the virusthe patient “would be close” to being considered cured.
Unlike other cases, the Berlin patient received stem cells from a donor with a single copy of the CCR5 gene mutation, instead of two, as in previous cases.
This mutation prevents HIV from entering cells, and having only one copy of it is much more common, making it easier to find compatible donors in the future.
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2024-07-23 06:55:10