OAN Geraldyn Berry
2:12 PM PT – Monday, February 20, 2023
A 53-year-old man in Germany has been cured of HIV, making him the 5th confirmed person have even been cured of the virus.
On Monday, researchers reported that despite ceasing his HIV medication four years ago, the “Düsseldorf patient” still has no virus in his body.
“It’s really cure, and not just, you know, long term remission,” said Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, who presented details of the case in a new publication in “Nature Medicine. “This obviously positive symbol makes hope, but there’s a lot of work to do.”
The “Düsseldorf patient” had been cured under unusual circumstances. He reportedly received a stem cell transplant, which is generally only done in cancer patients who have no other choices.
To note, a high-risk operation called a stem cell transplant can successfully replace a person’s immune system. The main objective is to treat cancer, but in a few instances, the technique has also been successful in curing HIV.
For the treatment of their blood malignancy, all four of the past patients who had been cured of HIV had received stem cell transplants. The same HIV-resistant mutation that deletes the CCR5 protein—which HIV typically uses to enter cells—was present in their donors as well.
Just 1% of the populace as a whole possesses this genetic mutation that renders them HIV-resistant.