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Scientists Report a Second Person Has Been Cured of HIV (reuters.com)
Scientists have reported that an HIV-positive man in Britain has been cleared of the AIDS virus after he received a bone marrow transplant from an HIV resistant donor. This is the second known adult worldwide to be cleared of HIV; the first was an American man, Timothy Brown, who became known as the Berlin patient when he underwent similar treatment in Germany more than a decade ago. According to HIV experts, Brown is still HIV-free. Reuters reports: Almost three years after receiving bone marrow stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection - and more than 18 months after coming off antiretroviral drugs - highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man's previous HIV infection. The case is a proof of the concept that scientists will one day be able to end AIDS, the doctors said, but does not mean a cure for HIV has been found. The man is being called "the London patient," in part because his case is similar to the first known case of a functional cure of HIV.
"There is no virus there that we can measure. We can't detect anything," said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man. Gupta described his patient as "functionally cured" and "in remission," but cautioned: "It's too early to say he's cured." Gupta, now at Cambridge University, treated the London patient when he was working at University College London. The man had contracted HIV in 2003, Gupta said, and in 2012 was also diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In 2016, when he was very sick with cancer, doctors decided to seek a transplant match for him. "This was really his last chance of survival," Gupta told Reuters in an interview. The donor -- who was unrelated -- had a genetic mutation known as "CCR5 delta 32," which confers resistance to HIV. The transplant went relatively smoothly, Gupta said, but there were some side effects, including the patient suffering a period of "graft-versus-host" disease - a condition in which donor immune cells attack the recipient's immune cells.
"There is no virus there that we can measure. We can't detect anything," said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man. Gupta described his patient as "functionally cured" and "in remission," but cautioned: "It's too early to say he's cured." Gupta, now at Cambridge University, treated the London patient when he was working at University College London. The man had contracted HIV in 2003, Gupta said, and in 2012 was also diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In 2016, when he was very sick with cancer, doctors decided to seek a transplant match for him. "This was really his last chance of survival," Gupta told Reuters in an interview. The donor -- who was unrelated -- had a genetic mutation known as "CCR5 delta 32," which confers resistance to HIV. The transplant went relatively smoothly, Gupta said, but there were some side effects, including the patient suffering a period of "graft-versus-host" disease - a condition in which donor immune cells attack the recipient's immune cells.
The article gets it wrong too, but HIV is not the same as AIDS. Both patients were 'cured' of HIV (not AIDS). https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids...
Around 1990 we had claims of a "cure in 5...10 years" by actual experts. Now, 30 years later, we actually have an experimental cure that worked two times and both times it was a purely accidental side-effect of a very risky cancer treatment. Hence we still do not have a cure that is worth the risks. Human hubris at work.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Well, here is to hoping you get it from a blood transfusion or a contaminated instrument. Unlike you, most scientists do actually have ethical standards, not just irrational hate.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Hodgkins is a cancer in the immune/lymph system, which is a whole separate plumbing system to the blood stream. If it was in the blood stream it would be leukemia.
(21 years cancer free now, yay).
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Funny enough, this attitude back in the 80s made the pandemic possible in the first place. Had we put a lid on it when it was still possible, AIDS would today be a problem of Africa, i.e. another one we ignore in the western world.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
According to genotyping results, I have the HIV resistance mutation that makes this cure possible.
Quick lads- let's get him and harvest his marrow!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
And heterosexuals, people who may have been raped, children born from infected parent, people who have have a dirty needle (probably from drug use, but also from bad doctors), people who had a bad transfusion...
I know we want to think like our ancient ancestors did, seeing people with illnesses as being evil and less human. Combined with HIV most effective methods of spreading is due to taboo things just makes it seem like a punishment from God.
However if you are religious sort of person, you could also see HIV as a test to society on how we treat the least of the people, and for the people who see HIV as a punishment and do not try to cure it, or help the people, perhaps they are the one failing God.
If you are not a religious person, Then HIV is just an effective Virus, It was evolved in a way to be effective, and robust. Understanding Human Nature, where Taboo items will still happen, it means leaving such a virus in the open to try to curve "Deviant Behavior" will lead to number of getting infected even though they are not directly doing that particular behavior. Realizing the 7 degree of separation can cause such a virus from always being a possibility even for the most Pius among us.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.