German Doctor Cures an HIV Patient With a Bone Marrow Transplant

reporter writes "HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Until now, HIV has no cure and has led to the deaths of over 25 million people. However, a possible cure has appeared. Dr. Gero Hutter, a brilliant physician in Germany, replaced the bone marrow of an HIV patient with the bone marrow of a donor who has natural immunity to HIV. The new bone marrow in the patient then produced immune-system cells that are immune to HIV. Being unable to hijack any immune cell, the HIV has simply disappeared. The patient has been free of HIV for about 2 years. Some physicians at UCLA have developed a similar therapy and plan to commercialize it."

Comments

Re:Like to see this replicated

[arth1]

Because this trait appears to be genetically inheritable, unless well-meaning doctors interfere by transplanting bone marrow, the donors will be replicated. Natural selection will favour those resistant to HIV infections, and within a few generations, people with this survival trait will have produced noticeably more offspring. Of course, this is of little value to those who would develop AIDS or other HIV-related diseases in the mean time...

Transplanting bone marrow to a HIV-infected individual should, IMO, be followed by a mandatory sterilisation. Else, we will be working against natural selection, and will in the long run assist HIV in surviving by increasing the number of non-resistant individuals in future populations.

(Note to moderators: There is no -1 Controversial. If you disagree, be man enough to answer.)

Re:MOD PARENT UP!!

[maharg]

Sooner or later someone must stand up to rid our society of this sickness that has befallen us.

Hilarious. You really believe that crap. Get a life.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Lershac]

you propose sterilising people. you propose taking action to make people who could otherwise reproduce, unable to. However you candy coat it, its meddling at its worst, and you cant even stand up for it you have to do some mealy-mouthed twisting of the perception (or at least a lame attempt to). and you cant even get that right.

weak hitler wanna-be.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[dilvish_the_damned]

Most of the drug treatments seemed like a viable strategy at one point. HIV mutates extremely rapidly though, and it seems able to bypass almost anything we can throw at it. If the new types of drugs can reduce the virus's ability to replicate effectively enough that it doesn't get an opportunity evolve a way round then in theory it could work. The problem with that is that you would need to administer the drug reliably on schedule for every infected person all the time and that doesn't happen. The treatments are expensive, and even worse, enough people see HIV/AIDS as some sort of punishment for promiscuity that some people are denied treatments intermittently because people don't feel comfortable giving it to them.

Is this anything like how good advice is denied to dipshits because its too dangerous to give it to you?
I will risk it this time: You may want to find a credible source to cite for that kind of dipshit claim.